Project Hope UK's Munsieville blog

Toys donated to Project Hope UK in Munsieville

2012-01-31T10:22:00.004Z

Boxes and boxes full of toys were donated by one charity to another, when Help a Child in Need decided to support Project Hope UK on 19 January.
Help a Child in Need is a charity organisation that helps children with medical conditions who have a grim prognosis. The organisation mainly assists financially, but does not give the money directly to the child or his or her parents, but rather pays the medical expenses of the child directly to the hospital or caregiver.
Wynand Pretorius of Help a Child in Need said, "We received boxes and boxes full of toys from ToysRus in Fourways last year and we decided to donate them to Project Hope UK as they need them more than we do."
Project Hope UK volunteer, Alyson Krucher said, "We are very grateful for this very generous donation. The toys will be used in the creches in Munsieville and the Children's Embassy to help entertain and educate the children, giving them a better start in life."

Health and safety training for creche teachers in Munsieville

2012-01-24T10:46:00.006Z

On Thursday 19th January the teachers of the crèches who are in the training programme of Project Hope UK in partnership with Safe and Sound Learning Association, gathered at the Embassy for a meeting with Safe and Sound Learning Association, Betty Nkoana and Carola Michielsen of Project Hope UK and the Teddy Bear Clinic. The purpose of the meeting was to share the report with recommendations of the GlaxoSmithKline Health & Safety volunteers that assessed crèche facilities at the end of last year and to discuss what the teachers could change to make their facilities a healthier and safer place for children. For Safe and Sound Learning Association this was a great opportunity to see whether the teachers had already implemented what they have learned during the training and to reinforce the recommendations. The Teddy Bear Clinic was invited by Project Hope UK to tell the teachers something about their organisation and to give a first short training session about how to recognise whether a child has been sexually abused by observing odd behaviour. This was highly appreciated by the teachers since this subject has been touched upon in their training but they indicated they would like to have more in-depth training. Teddy Bear Clinic indicated that they are willing to organise a full day training of the teachers around this subject.
We discussed all findings and agreed on things to improve the coming weeks. All teachers will place the emergency contact numbers on the walls of their crèches, all teachers received posters on hand washing and other hygiene advice to display in the crèches as well as the poster of the Paraffin Safety Organisation. They will set up a communication network to share best practices and learn from each other. In March of this year Project Hope UK, Safe and Sound Learning Association and partners will organise a training day to practice Fire Evacuation Strategy and First Aid procedures with all the teachers. The teachers of the crèches that were assessed by the GSK team all received their individual report in order to see what they can improve in the coming weeks in their crèches, to help provide the best possible start in life for the young children of Munsieville.

2012 will be a great year for Munsieville

2012-01-10T12:23:00.003Z

Pual Brooks, Project HOPE UK's Executive Director, looks back over the achievements of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville in 2011, and the outlook for 2012:
"As I look back over 2011, there is so much that I want to thank you for, because you have been so important in helping to make this a breakthrough year for the people of Munsieville! I have the privilege of daily exposure to the momentum that is being built in the township as together we move closer to the dream of seeing thousands of children given the opportunity to turn their back on poor health, low life expectancy, poverty, abuse and lack of opportunity, so I want to send you a strong message from those children to assure you of their gratitude and recognition of the vital part you have played in planting hope in their hearts – a hope that inspires action.
Over the past year, children have been rescued from serious abuse and others mobilised in the battle to eradicate abuse that hides under a cloak of cultural acceptance; hundreds of children have learned how to adopt simple habits to make them healthier; shack homes where children live are being made safer; health services are being made more accessible, especially to children marginalised by stigma and prejudice; pre-school workers have received professional training in Early Childhood Development and are transforming the lives of hundreds of children; caregivers are turning waste ground into vegetable gardens; women have started a cooperative to make the bricks to rebuild their community; scores of community members have come forward to deliver better services to children; young people have found a voice through our Journalism Academy; emerging leaders have enrolled in the Thoughtful Path: Munsieville Leadership Academy; and, last month, the Children’s Embassy – a place of safety to champion the cause of children in Munsieville – was officially opened by our new House of Young Ambassadors.
2012 will be even more significant! Launch of a 24-hour service for children in crisis; creation of a full-time health promotion unit; creative new after-school care clubs; expansion of enterprise initiatives to inspire others to create the incomes needed to care for vulnerable children; child health services offered by the Children’s Embassy …. A year of ‘M&Ms’ – Mass Mobilisation, Measurement, Monitoring and Momentum!
Thank you for your steadfast support, encouragement and commitment – you are part of a Miracle in Munsieville."
Happy New Year!
Paul

More facilities for Munsieville creches

2011-12-20T12:51:00.005Z

This story was written by Palesa Morakile, one of students at The Thoughtful Path's Young Journalists Academy, who looks set for a career in news reporting!
Glaxosmithkline health and safety group in collaboration with the Project Hope UK visits the Mayibuye crèches in Munsieville area, several assessments were conducted to check the safety conditions and health precautions that are followed in the pre-schools, Gladness Kgwadibe a teacher from Mpumelelo day care centre states “ the crèche has thirty kids and I take care of all them, my boss owns the crèche and she’s the one who does most of the things like attending different workshops and then she comes back to inform me about what should happen basically she trains me from what she learns in the workshops”. The pre-school has been operating for over five years and it is well established up to this far, the group discovered that although it is well established there’s still a very limited space for the kids and there are not enough facilities and study materials. It still isn’t a set back because they have a well fixed healthy routine for their daily meals and the kids are well taught. The size stretches up to two classes to fit the thirty kids, there’s also a kitchen with only one cooker Cindy Mathonsi “ I manage the cooking and I have a written out menu for the daily meals, I make sure the kids wash their hands every often” she mentions.
Two blocks away from the crèches there’s another day care centre which the group also paid a visit to it has a number of approximately twenty two children, Tswelopele Day care centre caters for children from the age of 1 year up to the age of six years with a number of three staff members who help out. Ms Maselele the owner of the Tswelopele day care says “ It’s unfortunate that my staff members are not qualified but I’m encouraging them to get the proper qualification so that they can become much better I believe so much in them”. She unveiled that the crèche receives health inspection from the government twice a year. It’s a well thought out construction which has signage boards everywhere for the kids to recognize their way around the centre. A daily activity programme to guide them throughout the day which includes toilet routine, washing hands regularly and rest times those are preplanned routine activities that seem to work out for the staff members from Tswelopele. The Glaxosmithkline team together with The Thoughtful Path hope to assist each other through a newly built children’s embassy which is a centre that has a huge interest in the kids of Munsieville who are vulnerable, disadvantaged, active and eager to learn to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others through the guidance from UK support group and members of the community.
Thanks for reading!

Forces for good at work in Munsieville

2011-12-15T10:10:00.007Z

'Forces for Good' is a book that talks about the practices of high-impact nonprofits. Nurturing nonprofit networks and collaborating with other NGOs on common interests maximises resources and increases efficiency. Uncovering the interests of corporates instead of just accepting a grant and communicating with the local government on what their goals and initiatives are for their municipalities and how they link with those objectives of the nonprofit are strategic measures to ensure success. Here are some of our own examples of partnerships at Project HOPE UK on its Thoughtful Path programme in Munsieville:
Project HOPE UK supported Human Youth Coordinators of Humana in a Sports Day in Munsieville while GSK South Africa Consumer Division contributed Lucozade for the event. The children of Munsieville enjoyed a day of competitive soccer games and received recycling messages to help keep Munsieville clean.
The Children's Tshepo Festival held on December 2nd had support from GlaxoSmithKline South Africa Consumer Division. The Mobile Dental Clinic was present to instruct children on oral care and lots of Aquafresh was given away.
The Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge supplied 1000 hot dogs that community members such as Ivy, and Walter, a waiter at Heritage Lodge, as well as some US and UK GSK employees cooked and distributed to all the children at the festival. Whether you are an employee of a nonprofit organisation, a philanthropist, business executive, movie star or sports figure, board member, small business owner, government official, or volunteer, working together towards common goals for the good of a community eliminates duplication and ensures success in arriving at a goal faster and in a more sustainable way.
Through these wonderful partnerships, hopefully lasting, the most important thing that Project HOPE UK will never lose sight of, is that these efforts are for the children of Munsieville; to ensure they have a healthy and safe environment to flourish into confident, self-sustaining, contributing adults.

Health and safety messages for Munsieville

2011-12-13T09:29:00.004Z

Tim and Candy from GSK shifted this week from being part of the crèche/shack safety team to the assigned objective of focus on the health and safety of the staff and stakeholders of The Thoughtful Path. First, we spent time observing and listening to understand key issues and challenges. Next, we met with Paul Brooks, Director of The Thoughtful Path, and Betty Nkoana, Project Manager, to discuss feedback about our key observations. We summarised recommendations for impacting the health of the TTP team and Tim delivered a coaching session to increase awareness of sustainable good health and resilience practices. Alyson Krucher, GSK Pulse Volunteer, held a leadership training workshop attended by Leadership Academy candidates, House of Young Ambassadors and other TTP stakeholders. We prepared a presentation and delivered this as part of the leadership training agenda. We asked the leaders to be aware of their health practices as they influence the community. We’ll be working tomorrow with a large crèche on fire drill training. Barbara and Mary went to The Victim & Empowerment Center this morning, which is housed in the Police Office. This is a community resource for children and adults who have suffered abuse. Barbara and Mary shared immediate feedback and observations with the staff and reinforced the connection with the Children’s Embassy, which will function as a safe environment where children can come for support for any issues. We all came back from the day's activities to a big storm of lightning and rain which took out the power (and internet access for Thurs night and Friday morning), so we ended the day with a candlelight dinner with the great team of people who run the Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge where we are staying.

Paraffin safety in Munsieville homes

2011-12-06T10:03:00.007Z

Last week, the GSK Health and Safety Team spent the day visiting the section of Munsieville referred to as "The Shacks", an area of immense poverty. The team focused on Health and Safety issues, particularly around the use of paraffin. At least 90% of the shack housing in South Africa uses paraffin for energy/cooking and its misuse causes over 2,500 deaths each year. Many of the mothers that we spoke to said they had experienced shack fires due to paraffin. In addition several had children who had suffered paraffin poisoning through ingestion, as the plastic bottles containing paraffin are stored on the ground where they can be reached by toddlers.
During the visits the Team provided on advice on fire safety and first aid, as many had a real lack of awareness of the hazards of paraffin. The aim is that this will help mitigate the alarming number of children that are harmed every year by ingesting paraffin and also those who sustain burns through accidents.
We have developed a poster outlining key paraffin safety and first aid messages. These posters will be available to all the creches and homes in Munsieville, through the Children's Embassy. We have also drafted a paraffin safety education leaflet for use by the key stakeholders (The Thoughtful Path's local volunteers) who will be sustaining this initiative when we depart, with input from Joe from the Paraffin Safety Association. The plan is that in the medium term Joe will liaise with The Thoughtful Path and external bodies to source bottles with proper safety caps that can be used solely for the purchase and storage of paraffin.
Check back soon for further updates from The Thoughtful Path's work in Munsieville!

GSK Health & Safety team in action at Munsieville clinic

2011-12-01T09:01:00.004Z

Today the clinical members of the GSK team had a very productive day, when we each had the opportunity to spend the morning with a nurse in the clinic in Munsieville. The clinic was very crowded and we estimate about 200 patients are seen per day. Between 9:00 and 12:30 we saw 30-40 patients in each area - child immunisations, TB/HIV/family planning, primary care and chronic disease management. The clinic opens around 8:00 and the patients begin lining up outside to be seen around 6:30 am. There is no doctor present on Wednesdays and the professional nurses (who have 4 years training) function in a very similar way to nurse practitioners in the UK. They take a detailed history, do a focused exam, diagnose, and dispense medications according to national guidelines. We were very impressed by their knowledge, dedication, and abilities. There is clearly a lack of space and resources. They have little time to spend with each patient, but do a great job with what they have. We identified some areas for improvement, for example in efficient use of administrative staff and nursing assistants, infection control, and health promotion/patient education. We are excited about the relationships we formed today and look forward to learning from the nurses we met, as well as hopefully making some useful suggestions.
Check back soon for more updates from our visit to South Africa.

Meet our youngest donor: Casey Jones

2011-11-15T10:10:00.004Z

Casey Jones is an exceptional little 4 year-old with a huge amount of compassion for others and a very real knowledge of the world that surrounds us. He decided to do something special to help other children after seeing charity appeals on television which clearly upset him.
Casey chose his charity all by himself and the Star of Hope appeal run by Project Hope UK was the perfect project for him. He plucked up all his courage to ask his Headmaster and the head of his school's charity committee if they would let him sell his stars and help him get the idea to the older children. He explained how he would like to sell his stars and that the money he raised would help children without a mummy and a daddy to have a better Christmas.
Casey ensured that all the children at his relatively small school (less than 50 children) decorated a star. The stars were put in the children’s bags and brought back to school the following week. He also sold stars to some of the parents at Credit Suisse, the employer of his mum, and even convinced a few of her colleagues without children to decorate a star when they were not in a meeting.
Explaining to people, especially strangers, was no easy task for Casey who suffers from autism and finds it a bit more difficult than others to socialise and communicate. He did however manage to put his point across and raised £265! He loved every minute of it and is already planning his next "mission" as he calls it, to raise more money for the children in Munsieville.
We at Project Hope UK would like to thank this entrepreneurial little boy for his efforts. We admire his determination and courage to step over his own fears to help the children in Munsieville! Casey, well done and we are proud of you!!

Brick-making machines to help build the future in Munsieville

2011-11-10T13:00:00.006Z

Two brick-making machines were donated recently to the The Thoughtful Path, Munsieville by a company called Eriger. The machines will be used by a group of women to make bricks, in order to build three créches in Munsieville.
Betty Nkoana from Project Hope UK said, "There is a need for créches because the children in this community have not, up to this stage, received proper early childhood education. Project Hope UK has sent some of the women for training in childcare and development, and they will then operate from the créches that are going to be built."
On 3 October, five of the woman from Munsieville went to visit Wilkinson in Eikenhof, which produces brick-making machines. The visit’s primary purpose was to teach the women how to operate the machines. Back in Munsieville, the women signed a proposal to the councillor, to request a piece of land in Maybuye for their activities, including brick making.Councillor Paul Molapo told the women at a meeting held at the site on 12 October, that their request has been pre-approved by council. "The municipality encourages residents to use their own initiative, and supports those who do so. Once this business is registered and the quality of the bricks are approved as per the national standard, the government can use these bricks in the building of Extension 5, which is the new extension of Munsieville," said Paul.
Anna Nkunou, one of the woman involved in the project, says, "We are so happy to hear this news. We were looking for an opportunity to empower ourselves and our children, but we didn’t know what to do."
Betty said, "These women are full of ideas and energy and are determined to reach their goal. Project Hope UK is supporting them in this regard and is convinced that these women will develop a flourishing business in Munsieville."
This initiative is part of the Community Strengthening Hub of The Thoughtful Path, helping to improve the environment in which the children are growing up and empowering the community to build a better future.

Peace and possibility - our patron's 80th birthday party

2011-10-18T12:23:00.008+01:00

Project HOPE UK's volunteers Alyson Krucher and Carola Michielsen had the honour to be invited to the 80th birthday celebrations for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Read Alyson's account of this amazing day:
"What an awe-inspiring weekend of peace and possibility! When Archbishop Desmond Tutu enters a room, you can feel the warmth, love, and genuineness he exudes and you just want to run up to him and give him a big hug. We were in his presence this weekend to celebrate his 80th birthday, as he is patron of Project HOPE UK's The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville (where Desmond Tutu grew up). As we waited for the Mass to begin in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, Tutu soon entered the room. The media cameras all pointed to him as he moved from pew to pew greeting everyone, but it wasn't for show. It was genuine as if he was the host of his own party and wanted to say hello to everyone. After the Mass, Archbishop Tutu took the podium to thank many people. He asked for all his overseas friends to stand, he thanked us, and the congregation applauded and cheered with such respect, admiration and thanks. Then we were all bused to Stellenbosch (wine country) to Waterford Estate where we celebrated the amazing life of this 80 year old man with his family, friends, and other organisations that he supports. It was a beautiful day: blue skies, no clouds, warm with no humidity and a slight cool breeze, all over looking the Helderberg Mountains.
Attending the first Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture was another milestone. The interaction between 'The Arch' and His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama is very special to witness. It is playful, sincere, peppered with mutual respect and admiration. The theme of leadership was threaded within this moderated question and answer session. During my time in South Africa, I have spoken to Ward Councillors, Department of Education employees, government officials, teachers, Afrikaans people, business owners, staff of leadership academies and young adults. They all say that what this country needs is leadership. It is vital to train the youth of South Africa to become informed, productive, honest and motivating leaders of tomorrow's Africa.
The importance of leadership resonated throughout this weekend of celebration. The thread of peace and the prayers of possibility of a stronger Africa rid of poverty were palpable in the gathering of people from different nations and cultures all coming together to celebrate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
It was a truly wonderful, unforgettable experience!"

Update from Munsieville's young journalists

2011-09-27T10:30:00.006+01:00

Our GSK PULSE volunteer Carola Michielsen caught up with the Youth Voice Journalism Academy students last week - here is an update from her meeting:
Last week I spent some time with some of the journalists of the Youth Voice Journalism Academy (YVJA), a year-long course that trains the young people with journalism skills, in order to develop literacy, accountability, self-confidence and leadership, whilst engaging the young adults in constructive activity. The YVJA aims to inspire the whole community by writing articles about relevant news or topics that concern the community or by the video diaries that the participants make which tell about their lives in Munsieville.
One year ago 20 young adults from Munsieville started this training. Some of them got jobs, moved or just dropped out so that by mid-October 2011, 10 of them will complete their curriculum. I met some very ambitious and talented participants (see picture). They are willing to make the best out of the course and are searching for ways to create more awareness in the community. They showed me their portfolio and I was really impressed by the quality of their work. Palesa was even asked by Caxton magazines to write an article for their magazine. She wrote an article on the origin of the word “kaffer”, which nowadays is used frequently by young children as a curse word but they have no idea where this word originates from. With the article, Palesa is trying to make the children aware so that they can rethink when they use this word. The students also made a HipHop magazine "Element" that looks very professional and trendy and is over 40 pages long!! They are eager to have this printed and have plans to discuss it with Caxton magazines, one of the companies they visited during their monthly site visits. This company has no magazine yet for young adults and this could be their first one and more importantly this could be the first magazine coming from Munsieville.
The students told me that they find it very difficult to create awareness about their work in the community and I challenged them to think about it - they came up with great ideas for creating a monthly newsletter and organising an exhibition of their work for the community! I think that the journalists I met last week do have talent and do believe that they can improve life for the young people in their community. With the right encouragement and support Project Hope UK will be able to help these young ambitious journalists achieve their goals and make their vision come true!!
Thanks for reading!

The power of connections in the Munsieville community

2011-09-22T11:31:00.007+01:00

Alyson Krucher and Carola Michielsen, our two GSK PULSE volunteers, spent the day in Munsieville on Tuesday, meeting some of the local community. Here is Alyson's report from the visit:
"The day started with a meeting with Vuyani (the man in the white zip-up jacket), who is a youth coordinator volunteer for Humana and a resident of Munsieville. He and I share a strong desire to have a more structured and consistent sports programme in the schools of Munsieville as well as the community. Vuyani has a vision of building a sports complex in Mayibuye, the more established part of Munsieville. On our way to see the field, we ran into the women I like to call, "The Entrepreneur Women of Mayibuye". We were greeted with the same excitement and love we always get when they see us. Elizabeth and the rest of the women updated us with their progress in writing to the Councillor to ask for land to put their soup kitchen and brick-making facility. The letter was already drafted and on its way - another display of urgency on the part of these business ladies!
Vuyani needs the support of the adults in this community if his sports programme is to be sustainable. Mayibuye is the area of Munsieville that has the most young inhabitants but organised sports are nonexistent here because the parents do not see the benefit. Vuyani and I discussed the need to address the parents and emphasise the importance of sports to the overall well-being of their children. His interaction with the ladies today will help Vuyani establish rapport and these women will be able to spread the word to other adults in Mayibuye about sports. In return, Vuyani asked the ladies about what they are doing and Elizabeth explained about her bubble soap-making business, the bricks, candles, gardens, and home-based care.
Since my time is short here in Munsieville, I realise early on that it is important for me to facilitate connections between volunteers, community members and government officials and gently nudge these engaged people in a direction of productivity, trusting relationships, and results!"
Another step along The Thoughtful Path as the community of Munsieville moves towards a better future!

Holiday activities give Munsieville children a healthy start

2011-09-20T11:57:00.009+01:00

Megan Quinn and Twanda Wadlington from East Tennessee University recently spent several months working on The Thoughtful Path in Munsieville. Here is another of their stories showing how changes are already happening to transform the lives of the children there:
The Thoughtful Path partnered with Legae La Bana (The Home of the Children) to create a two week health promotion programme during the recent winter holiday break. Sessions covered health, essential skills like reading and writing, arts and sports. Staff of Legae La Bana were present during all the sessions and were trained in all topic areas so that they can now develop an after-school programme with health-related themes.
The children of Munsieville were provided with a safe, productive way to spend their holiday break, and in return The Thoughtful Path gained knowledge on health-related issues in the community as seen through the eyes of the children. In addition, several strong, smart, outgoing children were identified to assist The Thoughtful Path with future projects such as The House of Young Ambassadors.
The activities organised for the children helped to foster positive growth and build confidence and self-esteem. The programme at Legae La Bana laid the foundation for this group of children to lead healthy, productive lives and they will now be able to serve their community by educating other children on basic health issues. The activities organised for the children also helped to foster positive growth and build confidence and self-esteem.
Check back soon for more stories of success as Munsieville takes further steps along the path to a better future for the whole community.

Vegetable gardens put the 'heart' back into the community

2011-09-13T08:20:00.000+01:00

The people of Munsieville are resilient, welcoming, and ready for change, but have to face the daily struggles of poverty, crime, and substance and child abuse. In an effort to end hunger, malnutrition, and poverty a community garden scheme has recently been started by The Thoughtful Path. By going back to the land and planting homestead gardens, the scheme engages the elderly women of the community to create a sustainable way to provide healthy, nourishing meals for themselves and their families.
Seventy four women from the Muyibuye area of Munseieville gathered to develop and implement the gardening project. Group members helped each other to build gardens at their own houses and to train other community members on building gardens. The “keyhole” garden method was used as it is proven to work in small spaces, various weather conditions, and uses recycled materials readily found in the community. This method utilises a series of layers and an inner compost circle to provide nutrients and proper irrigation to the seedlings. People collected materials from around the community for the layers of their gardens (bricks, cans, straw, ash, and soil). Seedlings and compost were provided via donations from the United States. A variety of crops were planted, including beetroot, parsley, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and spring onion.
The women involved in this project immediately made it their own, developing their own garden shape and creating strategies to feed the orphaned and vulnerable children with the vegetables from their gardens. The women observed that the “keyhole” shape looked similar to a heart and began creating distinctly heart-shaped gardens. One woman even remarked that the gardens would put the “heart” back into the community! Lastly, the women want to open a soup kitchen to feed the orphaned and vulnerable children in the area. The vegetables from their gardens will help make this an affordable and successful project. Ten gardens were built up to August 6, 2011, with plans for additional gardens as donations are received for seedlings. The owners of the gardens were empowered, gained confidence, and now have a sense of accomplishment as they are growing food for their families. The garden project shows that the Thoughtful Path: Munsieville is successful as it engaged community members, provided new skills, and created a greater sense of community among some of the most deserving residents. Gardens were built by people helping each other and used recycled materials readily found in the environment. The individuals involved in this project were immediately motivated and served as an inspiration to other community members and volunteers from abroad.
Check back soon for more success stories from Munsieville!

Two new GSK volunteers join Project HOPE UK

2011-08-23T09:34:00.009+01:00

Project HOPE UK welcomes two new volunteers from the GlaxoSmithKline PULSE corporate social responsibility programme who will be working on The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville for the next six months. Carola Michielsen will be developing our communications strategy and Alyson Krucher will be building new corporate partnerships to widen the support for The Thoughtful Path. Their work will be helping to empower the community of Munsieville to change the way it cares for its orphans and other vulnerable children forever:
Carola is from the Netherlands and has worked for GSK since 1999. She says "before coming to GSK I studied biology and did my PhD at the Veterinary Faculty in the Netherlands. In 1999 I started at the medical department of GSK as a medical advisor. In 2004 I became a brand manager and then in 2006 I started working as Head of Marketing for paediatric and travel vaccines. In September 2009 I was appointed Head of Marketing for respiratory and urology products, leading a large team of 12 people being brand managers, project managers and marketing assistants. In August 2011 I started my Pulse assignment with Project Hope UK, working for The Thoughtful Path Munsieville. This opportunity allows me to do really more for society and I am very happy to be part of the Project Hope UK organisation! I like doing and watching sports, hiking and travelling. One of my first trips to Africa was to Madagascar and since that time I have been impressed by the beauty of Africa’s nature and the colourful African people!"
Alyson has been with GlaxoSmithKline for 17 years, first as a sales representative in Southern Connecticut, USA. She says "I remained in the sales division through two mergers, and became a Sales Manager in December 2003. Currently, I am an area sales manager in the New York area. I will be working with Project Hope UK in Munsieville where my role is to partner with South African and international corporations and government officials to link their resources with those needs of the township. I am tasked with fostering confidence and the sharing of best practices within the community so that the resources from the corporations are leveraged by the Munsieville community and solutions are generated by the people themselves. I have always had a passion for helping people and this PULSE assigment is a great fit for me to immerse myself in another culture, uncover opportunities to help, and make a sustainable change in a community while at the same time fostering skill sets that will make me a more productive and valuable employee of GSK."
Check back soon for more news from Carola and Alyson as they start to make a difference in Munsieville.

Munsieville students visit Caxton Magazines

2011-08-09T12:02:00.004+01:00

Students from The Thoughtful Path’s 'Youth Voice Journalism Academy' in Munsieville spent a day at Caxton Magazines recently at the start of their latest assignment.
The team of journalists at 'Your Family' magazine gave the students some first-hand experience in magazine editing and production, including tips on how to create a professional layout. After a day of presentations and in-depth discussions with the journalists, the students went away put their own draft magazine together.
Women's magazine, men’s magazine, Sports, Beauty, Entertainment... which title would they choose to work on and put to print? The students went back to Caxton Magazines a couple of weeks later to have their work edited, and got some really positive feedback from the Your Family team.
Well done to the students for their efforts – look forward to the next good news story from Munsieville!

Green shoots of hope in Munsieville

2011-07-28T11:29:00.008+01:00

This week saw another community clean-up in the area of Munsieville known as 'Little Mshengoville', a collection of shacks clinging to a steep hillside. Until recently, the community rubbish dump, surrounded by the shacks in which children are living, was overflowing with stinking garbage. Not only was this unpleasant to look at and to smell, it was also a threat to the solitary water stand pipe serving the whole area, home to several hundred people. Now, thanks to the efforts of the community and the local council, the area has been cleaned up and the community will be able to enjoy a safe, clean water supply.

In another way to improve the environment and tackle hunger and poverty, The Thoughtful Path has recently shown the first group of community leaders how to build keyhole vegetable gardens. These will help to' green' up Munsieville and more importantly to provide food for children and an income for families if surplus produce can be sold locally. More training sessions are planned for the coming weeks to spread the word and provide the community with a way to feed and support themselves.

Young people of Munsieville addressed at launch of “one job per needy household” programme

2011-07-21T12:36:00.003+01:00

The Gauteng National Youth Development Agency (Nyda) chairman, Simon Molefe, recently took young people to task at the Munsieville Sports Complex for engaging in improper activities as a way to overcome their problems. In a strongly-worded speech aimed at curtailing young people’s immoral acts, Molefe did not mince his words as he stated that young people cannot be actively involved in the National Youth Services (NYS) programme if they continue to produce babies.

Molefe was addressing young people at the launch of the “one job per needy household” programme, which is part of the Gauteng government’s effort aimed at mitigating poverty, unemployment and joblessness caused by economic depression.

He urged young people to take their education seriously and for those who are working as interns in government departments to make use of the Internet to empower themselves with necessary skills. Molefe said the Nyda will strive to make sure that young people become entrepreneurs and not “tenderpreneurs”. It is aimed at enhancing the participation of young people in the economy, through targeted and integrated programmes, among others.

Waste management plan for Gauteng launched

2011-07-05T12:00:00.000+01:00

Gauteng province, which includes Munsieville, is an economic hub and produces 42 per cent of South Africa’s waste! Over the years, the province has experienced various challenges relating to waste management and waste volumes, hence a waste minimisation plan and standards have been developed to ensure that the waste produced in Gauteng is dealt with appropriately.
On 13 June the launch of the waste management standards, held in Munsieville in Mogale City, introduced three documents to address the following areas:
• The Gauteng Waste Minimisation Plan
• The Gauteng Hazardous Waste Management Plan
• The Gauteng Waste Collection Standards.
The 45 existing operational landfills are under pressure from waste generated in the province. Constraints include competing needs for land, as well as opposition by residents to developing disposal sites close to their residential areas. However, proper disposal sites will create job opportunities through recycling, helping to alleviate poverty. The project aims to introduce basic standards that are uniform in all Gauteng municipalities and tackle issues such as limited refuse removal services in poor areas like Munsieville, which cause health hazards.

Raising awareness of child protection in Munsieville

2011-06-16T11:35:00.005+01:00

Candice Wallace is currently working with Project HOPE UK as part of her Masters degree studies at Brunel University, and last week she was in Munsieville to run a series of workshops for The Thoughtful Path's child protection programme.
The workshops covered children’s rights, the issues surrounding child sexual abuse and how to raise awareness of this problem in the community.
Participants included members of the Child Protection Unit from the Thoughtful Path, who are responsible for developing abuse prevention programmes for the community. Other key players were children who have been victims of child sexual abuse themselves, as well as police officers, Social Welfare officers, teachers and nurses.
Candice used presentations, interactive sessions, role playing and videos to encourage the children to talk about their experiences and to highlight the legal, psychological and community aspects of child sexual abuse.
Project HOPE UK sees these workshops as an integral part of building effective networking in the community and for developing a sustainable community response to this widespread problem.
See our Web site for more information about the Thoughtful Path programme and find out how you can support our work in Munsieville.

Dr John Howe, CEO of Project HOPE, visits Munsieville

2011-06-07T11:29:00.006+01:00

Dr John Howe, CEO and President of Project HOPE US, visited Munsieville recently. Here is his report from his trip, where he saw the difference that Project HOPE UK's Thoughtful Path programme is already making to the lives of the children there.

"...we shall be as a city upon a hill -- the eyes of the people are upon us."

President-elect John F. Kennedy, January 8, 1961

I was reminded of these words, as we drove west from Johannesburg. My destination of Munsieville, a city of 39,000, sits high on a hill, overlooking the plains of the Rand District. The health of Munsieville is at risk both economically and medically. The nearby gold mines have shut down, resulting in 70% unemployment. 10,000 people live in corrugated tin shacks. Two clinics and two ambulances serve the entire city, without a hospital.

Yet as I visited with community elders I was most impressed with their sense of optimism. This was partly due to a sense of hope created by “The Thoughtful Path” programme, designed and carried out to "give orphans and vulnerable children the opportunity to develop into healthy, productive adults."

The project's early success is related to finding solutions from within the community to needs in early childhood development, after school care, youth support and development, community strengthening, child and youth sports programmes, child rights and protections, as well as partnership capacity building.

Betty Nkoana is the present Project Manager for the "Thoughtful Path" in Munsieville. As we visited two Early Childhood Development Centers (EDCC), one of the clinics and the homes of members of the community, the love the members have for her was clearly evident.

In the future, leadership will be passed to a younger generation, but the city will be well served, as seen in visits with two of its outstanding young people. Ivy started a successful for-profit EDCC from the bottom up, and Bucs began as a journalist intern but is now the city's lead print and electronic writer.

There are plans to create a sports centre and a community resource centre, all consistent with the goal of giving young people the "opportunity to develop into healthy, productive adults."

I left Munsieville with a new image of "a city upon a hill," a modern-day version of what President-elect Kennedy had in mind as he spoke in Boston in 1961.

See The Thoughtful Path Web site for more information on how you can get involved in supporting this innovative programme.

Youth Voice group sees journalism in action

2011-05-19T10:36:00.004+01:00

The Youth Voice Journalism group from Munsieville recently had a site visit to the offices of The Sunday Times and The Sowetan, where they met with the Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Times and then took a tour around the printing house. The group are already developing their photography and journalism skills and are hoping to use them in future employment with the local press, where they will also be able to give a voice to the young people of Munsieville.
The Youth Journalism Academy was established as a sustainable project for young people to bridge the gap between high school and employment. An initial pilot was organised to teach a small group how to make short films about their lives and write newsletters, to increase their chances of getting a job. Those materials and learnings were used to launch a full ten-month course for 50 students in February, to secure further funding and external support.
A local business helped with a donation to buy cameras, computers and other equipment, while the project has been fully supported by newspapers, TV and radio stations. They send staff in regularly to run sessions or act as mentors for the students and there are also internship opportunities for the Munsieville participants, giving them a chance to experience the world of work and impress outside partners with their talent. One young person from the pilot has already got a job working on Johannesburg’s leading breakfast radio show, while others are project leads on the new course.
See our Web site for more on the sustainable Thoughtful Path programmes we are creating in Munsieville, which use the energy and resources of the community to change young people's lives forever.

West Rand mayor's 'state of the district' address

2011-04-28T11:18:00.005+01:00

Councillor Mpho Nawa, Executive Mayor of the West Rand District Municipality (WDRM - which includes Munsieville) gave a 'state of the district' address recently, discussing some of the key achievements from the last year. His speech covered the delivery of basic community services, health and social development, as well as goals for the future. Some of the main points were:
• Approximately 30 000 permanent housing units have been constructed in the West Rand District since 1994, at an average rate of approximately 2 000 units per year. This number excludes serviced stands with no permanent structure.
• WRDM is currently refurbishing street lights with energy-saving globes and installing high mast lights in townships.
• Provision of four health clinic containers (one per municipality).
• Purchase of medical equipment and linen for all clinics.
• Purchase of 28 immunisation fridges for all clinics that are open five days or more per week.
• The annual target of 196 826 people tested for HIV/ Aids per year is being achieved.
• 117 youths from Zenzele, Zuurbekom, Rietvallei 1, Magaliesburg, Munsieville and Mohlakeng were trained on the course for youth- and child-headed families.
• 7,451 women have been trained on their rights regarding gender violence and child abuse.
For the future, the WRDM highlighted the following objectives in its 'West Rand Manifesto':
• To merge into a single B1 municipality by 2016.
• Work towards becoming a unicity (metropolitan form of government) by 2025.
• Become the greenest district in South Africa.
• Utilise the green economy to grow the GGP of the West Rand.
• Implement increasingly-shared services district-wide.
• Create jobs to combat poverty and dependence.
• Build a united and prosperous non-racial society.
• Commit to training and skilling of our communities.
• Build better neighbourhoods throughout the district, with equitable access to municipal services.
• Ensure effective and accountable councillors.
• Improve the quality of life for all.

Read more about Project HOPE's work in Munsieville here.

TNT helps ship beds for orphanage in South Africa

2011-04-19T09:17:00.005+01:00

Eight hospital beds donated by Lewes Victoria Hospital Trust in East Sussex are on their way to an HIV orphanage in South Africa, thanks to TNT, the world-leading provider of express delivery services.
The beds were collected from the hospital by TNT and moved to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, from where they will be transported by sea to South Africa.
Martin Lowrey, National Operations Manager at TNT, said “We were delighted to help Project HOPE with this collection and were able to use a vehicle which regularly runs between the airport and the Ceva warehouse. Our operations team have first-hand experience of working on overseas programmes with international charities and so really understand the difference that these shipments make to the lives of people in developing countries.”
The beds will provide much-needed furniture in a government-run HIV orphanage in the West Rand province, where the children currently sleep on the floor.
Find out more about Project HOPE UK’s Thoughtful Path programme in South Africa here.
For more information about TNT and its services, visit their Web site.

Take part in the London 10K just before the 2012 Olympics!

2011-04-05T13:11:00.002+01:00

Enter for this year's London 10K run on July 10 and we will guarantee your place in the 2012 event, just before the London Olympics kicks off next summer.
Reserve your slot now by registering online - you can run, jog or walk the route on your own or with friends or colleagues in a team of four.
Help up raise funds for The Thoughtful Path programme near Johannesburg, South Africa and change the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children forever!

Run 10km in London and help children in Munsieville

2011-03-24T12:35:00.003Z

Join the “RUNNING for HOPE” team in the 2011 British 10K London Run and you can have a guaranteed place in the same event in 2012, just days before the opening ceremony of the LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS!
With 25,000 runners, the British 10K London Run is one of the nation’s greatest annual running events. The 2012 event will be heavily oversubscribed, but your opportunity to run through one of the world’s most iconic race routes, festooned with flags in preparation for the “biggest show on earth” is assured by participating in 2011, as part of the 102-strong team supporting Project HOPE UK’s signature programme, The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville.
The 2011 event takes place on Sunday 10 July and you can reserve your place now, to avoid the scramble for places over the next few weeks.
Download the application form here but DON’T WAIT to register – you can also book your place today by emailing your request and contact details to ehiggins@projecthopeuk.org

Thank you for your support.

Michelle's last few weeks in Munsieville

2011-03-10T09:26:00.004Z

The second of our reports from Munsieville features Michelle Webb, who gives us an insight into her last few weeks as a GSK PULSE volunteer with Project HOPE UK:
'Even with the Charity Fundraiser postponed, last week was a busy one. We met with the Executive Mayor of West Rand about what we are doing in Munsieville and his Green IQ plan. He is very invested in making the West Rand District more sustainable with potential for solar, more parks and cleaning up the area as it was a huge gold mining area and there are tailings everywhere. They look like mountains with snow on them. We told him about our community clean up projects and he was very interested so we are going to send him our plan. I also mentioned the potential for children to do a play that my daughter Caroline did in 3rd grade called the "Dump Monster" that was all about the environment and make it a contest for children to see which school did the best play and then they could perform throughout the district and potentially the province. It really all starts with the children - it's difficult to influence the 30-50 year olds but the children can be taught not to litter and to take care of their environment. The mayor also wanted to give each child a tree to grow and take care of and then buy that tree from them a year or two later for his Green IQ. This will teach children responsibility to take care of a tree, and also teach them about business since they would be earning money and they would have to decide if they were going to buy another tree to sell or spend the money.'
'After that meeting we had another one with the West Rand District about our community clean up scheduled for March 26th. We asked for more garbage bags, gloves and snacks and water for the children. Along with that we were also trying to get some seedlings for some vegetable gardens for some of the women would like to help out children with a soup kitchen of sorts.'
'On Friday we gave out the letters from America that my friend Gail brought over from Caroline’s school. It was fantastic. They were so excited and we split the letters up so every class got some to write back - see the video of the children singing and thanking Ishikawa again.'
'Project HOPE UK is really getting to be known and that is so exciting. We still have a Community Clean Up left the last Saturday this month, a small fundraiser on Sunday at a local lodge that sponsors a market the last Sunday of the month and invited us to be the sponsored charity. They also allowed us to showcase the children that won at the Munsieville’s Got Talent (MGT) contest. Then on Sunday night there is a Fundraiser at Silverstar Casino that was kind enough to allow our MGT winner to perform since we had to postpone our fundraiser.'
'So there is no rest for the weary or the Project HOPE UK volunteers! Neil and I feel so fortunate to have had a chance to have this experience - if you would like to get involved in The Thoughtful Path, check out our Web site for details of our volunteering scheme.'
Thanks for reading!

Project HOPE UK volunteers final report from Munsieville

2011-03-08T10:09:00.003Z

Early March sees the end of their six month assignment for Michelle Webb and Neil Davidson, GSK PULSE volunteers with Project HOPE UK. The last few weeks have been very hectic as they tie up loose ends and make sure that all the initiatives started during their time in Munsieville are left in good hands to continue after their departure. Neil shares a few of his thoughts here (and a report from Michelle will follow soon).
'In all my other jobs I've always been fortunate enough to be able to step back a bit before the end so that the handover runs smoothly. Not so in Munsieville! The last few weeks have probably been the busiest and most exciting yet.'
'The Munsieville's Got Talent Final took place on the 18th Feb. It was supposed to start at 4pm but with no judges, no sound system, and no performers in sight, African time was in full force. The event finally got going around 5.30pm and given the tensions in the build-up to the final, all the acts showed up bar one, and performed brilliantly, raising their performances another notch. The winners, BCC, a teenage dance group dressed as geeks, were worthy champions. All in all, despite the hiccoughs, it was a fantastic event, the children enjoyed it thoroughly, and bizarrely may be one of the most significant events yet in terms of cementing Project HOPE UK's place in the community.'
'The students from the Youth Voice Journalism Academy have now started their first assignment in film, and we had the first visit from a professional mentor, who came in to teach them about working in the medium. It's been great to see the enthusiasm and energy from the 50 or so participants, and some great quotes emerged around "I'm going to change my career now based on what I've heard today". It has also been great to see the project leads Zeblon, Paul and Elaine, really blossoming into their leadership roles. Quite a change from the shy and retiring kids I met back in September! My biggest challenge now is letting go but I feel confident that the project's foundation is really strong and can only build from here. Likewise with the Connecting Continents programme, the website is looking really nice now and I am hoping to do a link up between two of the schools this week. Paul, one the journalism leads, is going to take it on as a side project, to make sure that the content is refreshed regularly, with the help of three representatives from each school.'
'As if these projects weren't enough, this weekend was our second Community Clean Up. This was going to be a real test to see if the community can ever run some of the Thoughtful Path events by themselves. Handing over this event to the community meant again letting go of the control, and just making small interventions on the periphery to keep it on track. It was a different event as we teamed up with the Community Works Programme (CWP), which is a paid employment scheme for community members to keep the township clean. The support from all levels of the council is also now in place for the future, and I think this can now be a community event, which can builder larger participation next month.'
'After the clean up, to give five of the journalists a bit of a treat for all the effort and commitment they have put in, I took them ten-pin bowling. For all of them it was their first time in a bowling alley and I was pleased to be able to give the guys a brief moment of respite from the daily challenges of their lives.'
'During all of our work here, both Michelle and I have been really lucky to have had such a welcome from everybody, and now when we drive around it's rare for us not to get a smile and a wave from many of the passers-by. Thanks again for reading over the last few months!
Neil Davidson, GSK PULSE volunteer with Project HOPE UK

Cleaning up in Munsieville

2011-03-03T11:22:00.004Z

How hard can it be to say "Keep Munsieville Clean"? Thankfully picking up the rubbish was more straightforward as the Thoughtful Path volunteers and adults and children from Munsieville worked together recently to remove nearly 1400 bags of waste in a single morning. Unlike cities in Western Europe, there is no regular rubbish collection so waste just gets left around the township, leading to large piles of smelly, unhealthy rubbish everywhere.
However, it was songs and high spirits all round as the Thoughtful Path and the Community Works Programme teamed up to tackle the problem of litter and rubbish in the township, to create a clean and safe environment for children. The community are hoping to turn this into a regular event, and encourage everyone to play their part in keeping the streets clean.

Story time in Munsieville - are you sitting comfortably?

2011-03-01T10:41:00.002Z

Last week, The Thoughtful Path project launched an initiative for grannies in the Munsieville township to read stories to the youngest members of the community, to stimulate the children and help them to develop.
Often pre-school children in Munsieville attend a creche for 10 to 12 hours a day, usually in a tin shack with a dirt floor and few, if any, toys, books or play equipment. The Early Childhood Development service unit of the Thoughtful Path is working to transform pre-school care for these children by training carers and setting up new ECD centres with improved facilities. This new story-telling initiative will use the experiences of the older members of the community to help entertain the children and build links between the generations.
Read more here about the Thoughtful Path and how you can partner with us to establish new ECD centres and change the lives of children in Munsieville forever.

Project HOPE UK's director heads to South Africa

2011-02-24T10:44:00.003Z

Paul Brooks, Project HOPE UK's executive director, is off to South Africa this weekend to review progress on The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville.
Since its launch last year, The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville has staged several major events such as the Children's World Cup, the Tshepo festival at Christmas and the Munsieville's Got Talent contest, which have all helped to raise awareness of the programme in the community. Behind the scenes, committees for the seven 'hubs' of the Thoughtful Path have been formed, and the site of the Resource Centre has been agreed with the local council. The first group of carers have started their Early Childhood Development training, and the Youth Journalism Academy has been established with support from Silverstar Casino.
During Paul's visit to Munsieville, he will meet with the hub committees and community leaders to plan next steps for the programme, helping to transform the lives of the orphans and other vulnerable children in the township.
Check back next week for updates from his trip.

ECD training gets underway

2011-02-22T11:59:00.003Z

Five ladies from Munsieville are now in week three of their training to become qualified Early Childhood Development practitioners, enabling them to make radical changes to the pre-school experience of the young children in their care.
The training will lead to internationally recognised qualifications in ECD, and ongoing mentoring and resources will help them to run programmes which will have an enormous beneficial impact on the children and the whole community.
In addition, the first of a number of model ECD centres will be opened soon in Munsieville, to help inspire and train other carers and to provide a safe and stimulating environment for the children.
Find out more about our ECD programme here, and join our CIP to help support this life-changing initiative.
Thanks for reading!

Youth Voice Journalism project launches sister academy

2011-02-17T08:59:00.005Z

This week has been an exciting one for the young people of Munsieville as The Youth Voice Journalism Project excitingly opened a sister academy in neighbouring township Swanieville, benefitting another group of 20 youngsters alongside Munsieville. The digital camera equipment is also winging its way to South Africa, ready for the launch next week.

I also got a thank you from the staff at Thuto Lefa high school for the Connecting Continents schools exchange programme. The website is in production and all six schools are busy writing their pen-pal letters. We also had a good success this week with the district council, who are helping with trees and seedlings for a greening project in the informal settlement. This will eventually in turn supply a soup kitchen for the orphans and vulnerable children. We are also planning our next clean up day on Feb 26th, building the capacity of the community leaders to know how to run this regular event themselves after we leave.
Thanks for reading,
Neil

New intern joins Project HOPE UK

2011-02-10T11:31:00.002Z

Candice Wallace, currently studying for an MA in Children, Youth and International Development at Brunel University, has joined Project HOPE UK to help develop the Child Rights and Protection hub of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville.
She will produce guidelines to promote child rights, address negative attitudes that lead to abusive behaviour and create a greater awareness among service providers of their statutory and moral obligations to children.
Candice was co-founder of the first Hip Hop Dance School in Trinidad and Tobago, a non-profit youth troupe dedicated to cutting-edge entertainment, dance education and outreach to diverse communities. She was also the creator and manager of BLACKOUT - a project targeting teenagers through the power of dance, and founder and president of Revolutionary Initiatives for Social Enrichment (R.I.S.E), a non-governmental organisation dedicated to community and youth development and child rights advocacy.
Candice's experience with these programmes will help Project HOPE UK implement proactive strategies to greatly enhance the protection of children in Munsieville.
Check back soon for more on Candice's work with the Child Rights and Protection hub.

Green light for young journalists

2011-02-08T10:57:00.005Z

This week has been really exciting. Above and beyond filming some fabulous welly-whacking dancing for our schools exchange programme, the biggest development this week was that the Journalism Academy got its green light for funding from the Silverstar Casino. This means now that the group can go ahead with the necessary equipment: 6 digital cameras, 6 laptops and coursework materials. It’s a great testament to the effort put in by the young people themselves, as it’s their films, newsletters and successful internships that have really shown that this project has merit. With the financial backing, it also means that some of the young people can eventually get a paid stipend for leading the group, after some months of demonstrating their commitment.
The 10-month long course is going to be a joint project between Munsieville and another nearby township Swanieville, catering for about 40 young people in total, giving them a much needed leg-up into finding work.
Even though there is going to be a hectic few weeks ahead of writing the curriculum, training the project leads, and getting media partners onboard, I feel really proud about the accomplishment already. It felt sometimes feels a bit like playing space invaders… as you blast away one obstacle to the project, another one descends in its place. But it’s a great feeling as you get nearer and nearer to the goal. You have to think through all the aspects of the project: rather than increasing the project lead’s cash stipend, I came up with an idea of making a part-time journalism course part of the package. This way we lock in commitment and develop knowledge and skills, which ultimately comes back to benefit the wider group.
The nicest aspect was the reaction from the young people themselves. We met 19 year old Zeblon, a Zulu guy from Swanieville who was part of the pilot journalism project in Munsieville last year , and whom we are giving the chance to develop into one of the project leads. He has no job and can’t get into school. When I told him about the opportunity, he was so excited. I’ve never seen someone try so hard to both contain and express their delight at the same time.
Check out the the Youth Voice Journalism section on our Web site for the first stories from this exciting new project.
Thanks for reading,
Neil

Linking schoolchildren across the world

2011-02-03T10:29:00.003Z

Our Connecting Continents schools exchange programme is building momentum. This week the high schools came onboard. Betty and I met Mr Mabusa, one of the teachers from the Munsieville high school, Thuto Lefa, who was really excited about the project. My brother-in-law Ronnie has also been doing an excellent job of bringing onboard a partner school Douglas Academy, in Glasgow, Scotland, where he is one of the teachers. Both schools seem fascinated by the prospect of having contact with an as-yet-unknown school and its pupils on the other side of the planet. We are developing a new part of the Project HOPE website for the exchange so that the schools can share their stories with each other and with you too.
Meanwhile, in the same project, I was lucky enough to share the first pen pal letters with 5th grade pupils from Phatudi, one of the Munsieville primary schools. To do this, I attended the weekly assembly at 7.30am on Friday morning. The early start was worth it as it was incredibly uplifting seeing over a thousand pupils belting out songs (complete with dance moves) that they knew by heart. It was certainly more inspiring that the school assemblies I remember from my own childhood, filled with dreary lectures from the head-teacher and miming hymns read from tatty song-books. The letters were written by pupils at Ishikawa, Michelle’s daughter’s school in Arizona. To the best of my knowledge I explained a little about Arizona (hmm, desert, cacti, etc) and then the kids performed a few songs and dances for me to video to share back to their peers in the US. The kids who had written letters on the Phatudi side were absolutely bursting with pride and delight when they received their replies, holding tightly in their small hands, these precious, beautifully-decorated messages of hope and friendship from abroad.
One of the other highlights from this week was the film event we put on in Mayibuye, to showcase some of the films produced by the Youth Voice Journalism crew. Any event in Munsieville is a real test of your resourcefulness, with no budget and next-to-no equipment. I had to beg, borrow and almost steal everything involved. The lop-sided tent was erected on the dirt football pitch, with the guys hammering in the poles with rocks (Mother nature helping out as one guy said). The screen was a bedsheet and power came from the same deathtrap electrical cable from the festival. I had to flag down some pick up trucks to help us move the equipment. Unfortunately, there’s an attitude of nothing comes from free so some serious bartering ensued, to make people understand that these activities are not for me but for their community. The event, despite the usual collection of mishaps, was eventually a great success and hopefully not only inspired pride in the community but generated another fresh set of recruits for the Thoughtful Path.
Check back next week for more on the preparations for our fundraising event at the Silverstar casino in March.
Thanks for reading,
Neil

It's official - Munsieville's got talent!

2011-02-01T08:38:00.006Z

This week’s focus on showcasing Munsieville’s talent continued with the auditions for our 'Munsieville’s Got Talent' contest. All week we had been spreading the word about the competition, through posters, schools, loud-hailing, and word-of-mouth. Excitement built feverishly about the prospect of winning the prize of performing live at the Silverstar casino at our charity fund-raiser on 3rd March. As usual though, we had no idea of what to expect would happen on the day itself – just what talent was out there waiting to perform?
The day began in bright sunshine around 7am at the Munsieville community hall, our venue for the day. The contest was due to start around 8am but African time prevailed and we didn’t get going til 10am. It transpired that the reason for the late start was one of our judges, a Miss Soweto finalist, was putting extra effort into her hair.
The judges introduced themselves before we began the proceedings. We had Xalani, a hip hop dancer; Samantha, the beauty queen; and Teddy, a stage and TV actor. We’d briefed them to look out for stage persona, originality, appearance, and interaction with fans, and they had big crosses and STOP signs to hold up if an act was terrible and had to stop (used fairly frequently). They did a great job of assessing the performances and giving constructive feedback. Teddy adeptly played the part of Simon Cowell, casually crushing the dreams of a whole series of Munsieville hopefuls.
The performances started slowly, with mostly stage-fright-struck primary school-children screeching hymns or Westlife songs into the microphone. Then, bit by bit, Munsieville’s talent began to reveal itself through some weird and wonderful acts. There was Johannes, who could do bird and animal noises. Neo and his group from Mayibuye (who performed at the Tshepo festival) put together a heart-stopping and foot-pounding display of traditional dancing. Simon, in a wheelchair, performed a blistering set of stunts (with only one tumble). A gospel choir raised the rafters with their harmonies. There were poets, acrobats, models, actors and divas. Perhaps most impressive of all were several groups of young male dancers, who set the stage (and the audience) on fire with their awesome manoeuvres.
Sixty-four acts in total rolled out on the stage over the next five hours. As the day wore on, the crowd swelled, with people poking their heads through windows at the top and back of the building. There were some notable differences from a talent contest back home. There were no pushy mothers shoving their little darling forward. In fact, there weren’t really any parents at all. Imagine if your 4-year old had plucked up the courage to perform in front of 500 people – there would be mum, dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles all out to give support. Not so in Munsieville - most of the children just performed for themselves or in front of their friends. It struck me as sad that the adults can’t or don’t want to take time to celebrate their own children’s achievements. I hope in some way the Thoughtful Path project can address this so that children are better cared for and cherished within the community.
Thanks for reading,
Neil Davidson, GSK PULSE volunteer with Project HOPE UK

Excitement builds for 'Munsieville's Got Talent' contest

2011-01-27T10:15:00.005Z

This Saturday sees the first 'Munsieville's Got Talent' contest (township-style) and excitement is building as posters and advertising go out around the community.
The winners from this first round will compete in the final on 18 February for the chance to perform at our fundraising gala evening at the Silverstar casino in March. As this is the first time such a competition has been held in Munsieville, it's creating quite a buzz and lots of rehearsals everywhere, so check back next week for the results and photos from the contest.
We're also launching the 'Adopt an ECD' (Early Childhood Development) project, where we are working with the grandmothers of Munsieville so they will volunteer to go into the ECD centres (like our day care centres). They will sing and tell stories to the little ones, as there is only one caregiver in a centre with anywhere between 30 to 70 children. Therefore, the caregiver has no time to work with the children except to change nappies and cook their lunch and feed them, but the grannies can help to stimulate the children and the children will brighten the grannies' day too. We would also like to see it branch out to local corporates to get involved through monetary as well as voluntary ways. Corporations could have employees adopt an ECD centre and come and help refurbish it (most lack toys and may only have a worn out rug on the hard cement floor) and also read and sing with the children. Check out our Project HOPE UK Web site for more on ECDs and how you can help too.
Thanks for reading,
Michelle Webb, GSK PULSE volunteer with Project HOPE UK

Farmer, Website designer, newshound, event planner – all in a day’s work!

2011-01-25T09:38:00.006Z

This week started with two successful corporate visits. The first was with Supersport to discuss upcoming sporting projects, and the second with ABI, the South African bottler for Coca Cola. The second meeting was particularly productive: not only because they offered to come onboard with the project, but also because SA Project HOPE manager Betty, after a bit of gentle nudging, stepped up and delivered the presentation. One of Betty’s greatest strengths is that when she has decided to do something, she really goes for it.
Michelle has been doing a fabulous job of advancing the charity fundraiser. Both of us will leave our assignments with a real appreciation of how to do more with less. Queen bargain hunter Michelle has not only convinced the Silverstar casino to more or less host her event for free, they have also designed and printed the invitations, and provided most of the entertainment. Now we are on the hunt for items to sell off at auction: at least we have something already to cater for the morbid: one of the law firms from Krugersdorp offered us a free will and trust writing package. I can only wonder what the private investigators would have donated us if we’d asked!
Part of the preparations for the fundraiser is our Munsieville’s Got Talent contest, where the winner will perform live at the Silverstar event. Auditions are next Saturday and then the final is on the 18th Feb. Alongside we are running a film event to promote the Youth Voice Journalism Academy. On Friday we were lucky enough to go into Primedia, the radio station we visited in November, and see Solomon, one of the young journalists, completing his two week internship. He was a bit embarrassed to see us there – like seeing your mum and dad I guess!! The news team have all been amazed by his talents though and he looks set for a permanent position.
The diversity of our weeks here never ceases to amaze me: back to back with these visits was also bringing in the district council to approve a community farming project. The site visit went extremely well, despite nearly killing the delegate on the steep climb back up from the valley!! Added to this, I’m also setting up our new website appeal, to get longer-term donations for the crèches in Munsieville, through what’s called a Community Investment Partnership. Check out www.projecthopeuk.org for more details.
Some things, as ever, are not always rosy. It’s going to take considerable effort to rebuild and regroup the seven hubs with the right people to get them working on their first projects. Local councillor elections are coming up in April, which is already posing a huge distraction. It threatens the already-lengthy approval process for the Children’s Centre, as lots of departments are giving up and waiting to see who the new bosses will be.
These challenges only serve however to make the road more interesting. The journey continues at pace. See you next week!
Neil Davidson, GSK PULSE volunteer with Project HOPE UK

Networking in Munsieville

2011-01-20T11:23:00.005Z

This week we have been busy organising our March Fundraiser and have sold 5 tables of 10 - only 35 left to go - and that was without the invitation yet being printed! I am desperately trying to find auction items that would really be a draw for the event. Anybody have any suggestions? We have some of the entertainment in place and will be doing a 'Munsieville’s Got Talent' contest in February that will allow the winner to perform at the Fundraiser.
I had some great meetings late this past week with the Chamber of Commerce, the President of the Rotary Club and some of the District officials to discuss some of the needs of the community as well as the Fundraiser. It is so interesting having these meetings since with each one I learn something that seems to be of interest to someone else in one of the other meetings I am attending. When I bring up what the other person is doing or needing it seems to fit into something they are doing or interested in doing and thus makes the connection that helps network the two together for a possible solution. For example, the Chamber of Commerce got funding for a Bicycle Repair Business to help some of the rural areas and the District was doing a bicycle programme for safe bike stands in the rural areas, so I mentioned what the Chamber was doing to the District officials when I was speaking with them and they made a connection to talk. This happened three times last week and has happened several other times while I have been here and it is great to be able to help network people together. This country is filled with so much potential and is growing so quickly it is exciting to see all the changes that can take place. And if my small part can help, I feel that I have contributed something to the sustainability of South Africa. It is a great feeling.
Great news from the Journalism Academy that we set up for some of the youth of Munsieville, as one of the young men was offered an internship with Primedia who owns the radio station which we visited in November. On the first day of his internship in the new year he was offered a job! Congratulations Solomon. So there are truly some exciting things happening in Munsieville. The other project we are quite busy with is Connecting Continents where school age children in South Africa and the UK or US correspond with each other. My daughter Caroline’s teacher from last year is involved with it and her class wrote some beautiful letters on decorated paper that looked like a present to the children in one of the 5th grade classes in Munsieville. The Munsieville children in turn wrote letters to them as well which will soon be posted on our Web site for everyone to read. The 6th grade here in Munsieville did the same and it was truly an eye-opener reading the letters from them. The issues they struggle with are so different from the ones our children do - violence, rape and HIV are such a prevalent theme in their letters, while that is not something that would even cross the minds of most 6th graders in the US or UK. It just reminds us that all the work we are doing to help the children grow up to be healthy, productive adults is so imperative.
So as you can see we are busy as ever and many projects left to do in 8 weeks or less. Next week I will tell you about the Adopt an ECD project I am working on as well.
Thanks for reading,
Michelle Webb, GSK PULSE volunteer

New year, new challenges in Munsieville

2011-01-18T09:31:00.005Z

It was with mixed feelings that I returned to work on the Thoughtful Path project after the Christmas break. I was re-energised by the time off, and looking forward to coming back and working with people again, capitalising on the momentum we have created with the Tshepo festival. However, I'm acutely aware of time running out, with just 7 weeks (now 6) left before I end my assignment, and lots to accomplish before then. These time constraints only apply to me and Michelle so our first challenge is going to be motivating people and moving things along a bit quicker than on just regular African time.
The second challenge is to ensure everything we set up can continue after we leave. I'm especially conscious of this for two of my major priority projects: the Connecting Continents Schools Exchange programme and the Youth Voice Journalism Academy. The former has started with kids' writing pen pal letters to their peers in UK and US. Reading the Grade 6 letters from Munsieville has really reinforced the need for the Thoughtful Path project, as amongst the normal likes and dislikes of a 12 year old, you find them confronting issues of rape, violence and alcohol-abuse from adults in their daily lives. The journalism project is going from strength to strength and some of the films and newsletters already produced are truly inspirational. We now need to build this into a longer-term project and have a film event planned for the end of this month to showcase their work and recruit new members.
For our first full week back, we've had an amazing number of early successes. Solomon, one of the young journalists, started an internship this week, working at Highveld, the radio station we visited in November. After his first day, he impressed them so much, they have offered him a permanent job! So this is at least one person I can say I have helped lift up, even a small bit. Michelle's 5000+ books collected by her daughter and friends in Arizona have set off, kindly shipped by a company called Courier IT at no charge. Michelle is also leading on Project HOPE UK's first fundraiser on African soil, on March 3rd at the Silverstar casino. It's really nice to see that some of the relationships we have been nurturing with corporates are really starting to pay off, as tables for the event are selling like hot cakes! Munsieville will be well represented too: we have a Munsieville's Got Talent event planned for February and the winner of this competition will perform live at the fundraiser. I even got my own 90 seconds of fame: our television coverage of the festival has been broadcasting all week on the Supersport channel, shown right across Africa.
Even just writing this has got me excited about the challenges of the weeks to come. However, it's all relative to the struggles that people face here on a daily basis. I found out this week that someone close to me is HIV positive. A single mum, with two young kids, the future is undoubtably going to be tough. Yet her viral load is low, she is healthy and dealing with it pretty well. But it's an example of hardship that I, and I suspect many people in the West, have little concept of. It's an important reminder for us all to reflect on our own lives and remember to be grateful for how lucky we all are.
Thanks for reading.
Neil Davidson, GSK PULSE volunteer

Project HOPE UK's director's blog on The Thoughtful Path

2011-01-13T10:33:00.003Z

Paul Brooks, Project HOPE UK's executive director, has started the New Year with his own blog on The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville.
Paul plans to share his thoughts and insights with the blogging community over the months and years ahead, as The Thoughtful Path becomes the model of excellence for transforming the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Read his first post here and check back soon for more comment as this innovative programme develops.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-11T11:35:00.005Z

With Christmas holidays now over, PULSE volunteers Michelle and Neil are working on a Charity Fundraiser for the 3rd of March for The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville. It will be our first one here in South Africa and our first one to organise as well. Project HOPE has been very successful in the UK with fundraisers and, with their help and others here, we hope that we can raise some money to be able to run many programmes as part of The Thoughtful Path, to help the orphans and other vulnerable children.
The Charity Fundraiser will take place at the Silverstar Casino, which is very near Munsieville and thus we hope to get businesses nearby as well as corporations to take a table. Silverstar is a beautiful casino with a fountain that is similar to Bellagio in Las Vegas. It has music playing while the fountain - supposedly the largest in the Southern Hemisphere - spurts its water high up in the air. We are working with several people to get entertainment, auction items (anyone have a signed piece of memorabilia you would like to donate to a great cause?) and celebrities (again, anyone know Madonna, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie??) to come to have a real draw for the evening.
Also some wonderful news came today that Courier IT will cover the cost of our shipping the books from the Ishikawa/AZ book drive for the orphans and vulnerable children of Munsieville. They will be so excited to get such an unexpected gift.
Check out the YouTube video of the Christmas Festival that Project HOPE UK director Paul Brooks put together. It is about 10 minutes long but well worth the time. It really shows how much fun the children had and what a blessing it was (even with all of the chaos behind the scenes) for the community of Munsieville. There were many children there who never have experienced anything like this in their lifetime. Although the festival is over, you can still make a donation towards our Early Childhood Development programme and help give the children of Munsieville a positive future.
Thanks for reading!

Christmas is coming in Munsieville

2010-12-21T10:50:00.006Z

What an exciting week! We had the Christmas Festival and Health Fair Saturday, as you all know, and hopefully you have had a chance to go to The Thoughtful Path Facebook page to see all the videos and pictures of the day.
Also this week I learned that we will be getting the 5812 Christmas wrapped books and 850 stuffed animals and toys shipped from Arizona to South Africa!! I am so excited. Gail and Gail have worked tirelessly along with our new friends, Joanne and Randy who learned about us through the news segment on the TV and proceeded to help us try and get the books here. I truly can’t thank everyone enough for all their support on this endeavour. It means so much to me and will mean even more to the orphans and vulnerable children of Munsieville. A very special thanks to our donor and to Allison Evans who helped us to get a very large contribution to help make this possible and to DHL and Courier IT who also have stepped up to the plate to work with us. As I said, it is amazing to see how a simple project turned into a phenomenal success. I can’t wait for AZ Family to do a follow-up story. I would love to see a few of the people involved be able to come out and hand out the books.
Well I will be leaving soon for a visit with my family on the East Coast and then back again in the New Year. I can’t believe that when I get back it will be only a little over 2 months of my assignment left. The time has flown by and there is so much more I want to see get done. We will be having a Charity Fundraiser in March, along with a Fun Run at the end of January and hopefully a 'Munsieville’s Got Talent' contest.
The Young Ambassadors programme that we have initiated is a priority for us to work on as soon as the children get back from school break. It will help the young people become the future leaders of Munsieville and will run alongside The Thoughtful Path as a Children’s Board, so that their voice is heard on what is important to them and their community to ensure that the programme meets their needs.
Check back early in 2011 for the latest news from Munsieville - meanwhile, have a Happy Christmas!
Michelle, GSK Pulse volunteer with Project HOPE UK.

Tshepo Christmas Festival and Health Fair

2010-12-16T09:24:00.008Z

On Saturday 11th December, as part of the 10 year Thoughtful Path project, the first ever Tshepo Children’s Festival and Health Fair was held in the Munsieville township. Tshepo means hope in the local language, Setswana.
This festival was about celebrating children, Christmas, and better health for all. This was the second event organized under the Thoughtful Path following the successful Children’s International Cup in June, a replica of the FIFA world cup for the children of Munsieville, many of whom are orphans or other vulnerable children.
Most of these children and their families do not get a chance to celebrate Christmas, but this year the Tshepo festival has changed that. The festival was put together by volunteers from Munsieville, who, with the support of Project HOPE UK, organized and ran the whole event. As Munsieville is a township divided into informal and formalised settlements, one of the ambitions of the project was to bring children from all parts of the community together, no matter what their background.
To create cohesion in the community, the festival started in the morning in the informal settlement of Mayibuye, opened by drum majorettes and a marching band, with face painting, dancing and drama. It then continued as a parade, marching through all three wards in Munsieville, collecting children to bring them to Munsieville stadium. Here, the festival featured stage shows, Father Christmas, sports activities, clowns, balloons, face-painting, film shows, bouncy castles and a Craft and Health Fair, including child registration and HIV testing.

It was kindly supported by the Mogale City municipality, through the presence of the Home Affairs mobile unit, and Emergency Services and Traffic police, who allowed the children to interact with their officers. Children from the UK also participated by decorating and sending Stars of HOPE for their counterparts in Munsieville, each containing a special personal message of hope, joy and love.
Executive Director of Project HOPE UK Paul Brooks said: “This festival is about celebrating Christmas, children and better health for all, involving the whole community. Thousands of children have turned up a special day of activity, involving face-painting, Father Christmas, singing, dancing and food. A great celebration here in the African sunshine!”
Outside companies sponsored the event, included Aquafresh, Tiger Brands, PnA and Supersport, who through 'Let’s Play' televised the day and ran a sports skills activity, allowing children to improve their skills in soccer, netball and cricket, and try out rugby for the very first time.
As you can see from the photos, there were smiles all round!

Countdown to the Tshepo festival begins

2010-12-09T10:38:00.005Z

The last few days before the Tshepo festival are full of excitement and anticipation, but also lots of frantic activity as everyone pulls together to make sure all is in place for December 11.

Following the clean-up day last week, Munsieville is neat and tidy in readiness for the festival, and all the behind-the-scenes organisation this week will ensure that the community enjoys a day to remember.

Stars decorated by schoolchildren in the UK are on their way to South Africa to be hung on the Christmas tree, kindly donated by the Parks Department. Tubs of facepaint donated by PnA will mean that the children of Munsieville can be decorated too!

The members of the Thoughtful Path hubs have been meeting to plan all the events for the Tshepo festival, so that it is a successful day that also has a lasting impact on the community. The 'Right to Care' organisation will be providing HIV testing and counselling, and there are several other health and sports activities planned.

It's not too late to make a donation towards the festival at http://www.projecthopeuk.org/ - and check back next week for news and photos from the big day!

Thank you for your support.

Munsieville Community Clean Up Day a great success!

2010-12-07T09:00:00.005Z

The Community Clean Up Day was a campaign to bring pride and more sanitary conditions to Munsieville. We hoped to involve the entire community so that they realise that every piece of trash that they throw down has to be picked up by someone at sometime. We worked with the different levels of government to get this project off the ground. One of the real problems is they do not have anywhere to throw their rubbish, particularly in the informal settlement. Thus I am working to see if trash cans can be placed around the township on street corners and large refuse bins be brought in to put in strategic places around the township so that they have a place for overflow.
There is a lot more to do but it was a start to help them understand about littering and dumping. There are so many areas where people dump their rubbish that it is just unhealthy, unsafe, and plain disgusting! The worst has to be right next to the medical clinic. These people are already sick and then they have to pass this dumping area. I am going to try and speak with the mayor of the District about it since he is working hard on a 'green' campaign. It is one step at a time…
We are a week away from the Christmas Festival and Health Fair, a week which is going to be our biggest test yet, with all our strength needed to pull everything together for the festival. If you haven't had chance yet - please send the children of Munsieville a little hope by donating through our Star of HOPE appeal at www.projecthopeuk.org.

It's been great to see so many of you doing so - thank you for your support!

Michelle Webb & Neil Davidson, GSK Pulse volunteers at Project HOPE UK

Crunch time is fast approaching

2010-11-30T11:56:00.003Z

Crunch time is fast approaching on a number of our key projects with just one week to go before the community clean up and two weeks before the children’s festival.

As we get closer to the festival, and the workload intensifies, I’ve noticed community members sometimes giving up or doubting their own abilities in the face of adversity. I guess this is not surprising when getting the next meal is the first priority. We’ve had to adapt our ways of working, to come alongside, push and boost confidence and break down the seemingly-impossible tasks into smaller steps.
What’s brilliant is having someone else in Michelle to share these experiences with - Team 'Michneil' has sprung into action and we are now splitting up to divide and conquer our never-ending list of tasks.

We’ve got the Munsieville primary schools onboard now to start school exchanges with one in the UK and one in the US. Supersport have agreed to sponsor (and televise!) football, rugby and netball skills sessions at the festival. Rehearsals have started in earnest for the acts performing onstage. The catering team has also devised its plan to feed all the children (chopping up a cow was mentioned).
Although much as the work is extremely hard, I feel we are going to get there. Please give us a huge boost by joining our Star of HOPE appeal, and donating a little in aid of the festival, at http://www.projecthopeuk.org/ and click on a "be a star".

Neil, GSK Pulse volunteer at Project HOPE UK.

Wanted urgently - book delivery to South Africa

2010-11-25T11:15:00.003Z

We have 5000 books from the Ishikawa, USA (Caroline's school) book drive and over 50 boxes all wrapped with handmade bookmarks as well as age-grouped along with 9 boxes of stuffed animals for the little orphans and vulnerable children here in Munsieville, South Africa and we can’t get them here without a prohibitive expense.
Please put out on all your Facebook, Twitter, and any other social network sites you know to see if anyone would be willing to fly these books here to South Africa from Arizona for the orphans and vulnerable children who have never gotten a Christmas present in their lives.
I cannot thank enough Gail Jones, all her friends and all the children who tirelessly wrapped and bookmarked all these books. It means so much to me and would mean even more to the children who would receive them. Gail Morgan has also been relentless on trying to find an avenue to get these books to South Africa. Thank you to each and everyone who has participated in this endeavor!!!!
Please spread the word and help us find someone out there who can ship these gifts to South Africa for us.
Thank you for your support,
Michelle (GSK Pulse volunteer with Project HOPE UK).

Getting close to the tipping point

2010-11-23T12:31:00.005Z

Here we are again, yet another week passed of the African adventure. Week 8 in Jo'burg has been an entertaining week. Perhaps the delirium of being only one month away from the Christmas festival is catching up with us. Michelle's antics have been keeping most of the community amused. On Monday she decided to try her hand (or more accurately, her head) at carrying one of the 15kg maize meal sacks that the women carry here on their heads. I caught her smiling bravely as several of her neck vertebrae were crushed and she took on a new hunchback look!
On the positive side, the young journalists have produced their first film - check it out here. I'm really impressed by their optimism in the face of so many problems. A primary school in the UK has come onboard now to pilot the production of our stories micro website to exchange with schools in Munsieville.
More UK schools have joined to decorate stars for the Christmas Festival. Desmond Tutu, the Patron of the Thoughtful Path, answered a letter I sent him to get his backing for the Star of HOPE appeal and has signed off a letter to some of our corporate partners.
We have also secured a Christmas tree for the festival, through the Parks Department. At first, they offered us just a branch, then the top of a tree, but I think they finally realised we needed something more impressive for the stadium where the festival is going to be. I'm very intrigued to see what we are going to end up with - I suspect it might be a distinctly African version of the classic spruce!!
I think we are also getting close to the tipping point in our way of working with the community. I've been really pleased this week that the message is starting to get through that this community has to act for itself, if it's going to improve things for children.
An example of this occurred during the festival committee meeting. The group has decided that it would like to provide a small meal for the children during the festival. Now instead of just presenting the problem for Michelle and me to solve, the group said straight off we will sort it, we will ask for the necessary donation, and make the catering arrangements. Job done. I'm hopeful that this will continue. Little by little, the community members are taking action.

Neil (GSK Pulse volunteer with Project HOPE UK)

Two new GSK PULSE volunteers join The Thoughtful Path

2010-09-14T12:36:00.000+01:00

Project HOPE UK is very pleased to welcome two new GSK PULSE volunteers to work on the next phase of The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville, our ground-breaking programme in South Africa, following its successful launch in July.
Michelle Webb and Neil Davidson will be based in Munsieville for six months to develop the next stages of The Thoughtful Path, our model of excellence for the care of disadvantaged children.
Michelle will be working with our partners and supporters in South Africa to set up and equip the community resource centre in Munsieville, and to help establish the seven hubs which are the key elements of the model.
Neil will be working with the media both in South Africa and the UK to raise awareness of the programme and to give the people of Munsieville a voice.
Check out Michelle and Neil's blogs over the next 6 months and follow their progress as they help change the lives of disadvantaged children forever.

Gala evenings for Munsieville

2010-08-24T08:54:00.003+01:00

To raise funds for The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville, Project HOPE UK are holding two fantastic gala evenings this autumn:

- Concert with The Vasari Singers, St Paul's Church Knightsbridge, on Friday 15th October

The Vasari Singers, now in its 30th year, is one of the UK's leading chamber choirs and has regular appearances on TV and radio as well as concerts and festivals.

- Charity Ball at The Savoy in the Strand, on Thursday 18th November
A black tie gala evening with dinner and entertainment in The Savoy, which opens again in October following a £100 million restoration.

For bookings and more information about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Ellie Higgins on 0208 990 4052 or e-mail ehiggins@projecthopeuk.org

Thank you for your support

Archbishop Desmond Tutu joins The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville

2010-08-12T12:56:00.002+01:00

Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has agreed to serve as Patron of The Thoughful Path: Munsieville, Project HOPE UK's signature programme based near Johannesburg, South Africa.
Speaking to Project HOPE UK Executive Director, Paul Brooks on Monday (9 August), he said that despite his very recent announcement of his intention to withdraw from public life, "the Thoughtful Path: Munsieville is most worthwhile and I am very happy to support Project HOPE UK in this vital initiative to provide a future to our most vulnerable citizens. The programme's emphasis on sustainablility and on the mobilisation of the entire community to improve the health of children is most welcome and deserves widespread support".
The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville represents a long term commitment from the Board, staff and volunteers of Project HOPE UK, aiming to create a new "gold standard" for the way orphans and other vulnerable children are supported within the community, covering every stage of child development and seeking to remove the root causes of poor health in children, including poverty, violence, lack of education and poor nutrition, in addition to disease and other medical challenges.
Archbishop Tutu, one of the most effective and respected anti-apartheid activists and architect of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, cited by some as one of the most significant factors in avoiding a civil war as the country transitioned to democratic majority rule in 1994, grew up in the township of Munsieville, host to The Thoughtful Path. He is a frequent visitor to his former home and knows intimately of the difficult slum conditions in which the majority of Munsieville residents live.

Click here to find out more about how you can become a partner on The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville.

Nearly £10K raised by our London 10K runners

2010-08-10T11:15:00.004+01:00

With money still coming in, we have raised almost £10,000 so far from the London 10K run on Sunday 11 July.
Despite the heat and humidity on the day, over 70 Project HOPE UK supporters completed the 10 km to help raise funds for our flagship programme The Thoughtful Path: Munsieville.
Teams from Munro Forster, Fulbright & Jaworski, GlaxoSmithKline and Synergy Healthcare as well as many individual runners ran or walked the route past historic London landmarks and enjoyed a well-earned drink at the Blue Posts Inn afterwards.
Jonathan Brooks was the Fastest Male runner, finishing in 40.43 mins and Claire Grindel the Fastest Female runner with 48 mins, while Stacey Harris won a special Wooden Spoon award for making it back!
Many thanks to everyone who took part and to all their sponsors - all funds raised will be used for our programme changing the lives of disadvantaged children in South Africa forever.

Brazil vs Germany in the Munsieville Children's Cup final!

2010-07-06T08:42:00.003+01:00

We are now there! The participating teams in the final of the Munsieville International Children's Cup are now known. Since June 12th, 32 teams and more than 500 children of the Munsieville Community have gathered at the local stadium to bring the whole fever of the FIFA World Cup to their community. Out of the 32 teams, there are two still standing! In a action-filled game played at the Munsieville Stadium, the representatives of Brazil won a crazy match over the tournament favourite, France, by the score of 5-4!

The first half was not indicative of the pace that the game would take in the last 30 minutes, as the score was 1-0 Brazil after 30 minutes. In the other semi-final, Germany won by 2-1, fulfilling their promise established from day one, that they would be part of the last game of the tournament.

For the rest of the week, the two teams will have the chance to maximise their preparation for the final which will be held this Saturday July 10th, one day prior to the FIFA World Cup Final taking place in Soccer Sity, Soweto. Talking to a few players from each team, they cannot wait for that day!

Quarter finals in the Munsieville Children's Cup

2010-07-01T08:35:00.003+01:00

The action starts back tomorrow at the Munsieville International Children's Cup as the tournament is entering the quarter final stage. Two exciting games starting at 11.30 am which will see the surprising Team Japan facing the powerful Brazilian formation. The second game will pitch Team Slovenia against 'Les Bleus', who according to the community sports leaders, are the favourite to win the honors of the MICC!
Log back on Friday to get the results and news from the Journalist Team from the HUMANA Project in Munsieville.
To support your team in the Munsieville International Children's Cup, log on to www.hopeactive.org .

What a lucky turn out for SA

2010-06-22T12:14:00.002+01:00

A very important game of the Group A was played earlier today at the Mayibouye Ground, pitching Mexico against Uruguay. A win by Mexico meant a free pass to the second round. A win by Uruguay meant that they were to advance to the round of 16. A tie would see each team go out of the Munsieville Children’s Cup and leave the way for the Host team South Africa to advance. In a very intense match players had to cover every inch on the football pitch, but Uruguay and Mexico were unable to sort out a winner and the final score was a draw of 1-1.

The goal scorers were Thabiso Mathibe for Mexico and Kgotso Lehlohonolo of Uruguay to tie the game in the second half. With this result, Team Bafana Bafana now advances to the second round of the MICC. What a lucky turn for Team South Africa!

Serbia creates another upset!

Team Serbia shocked the present spectators at the Mayibouye Ground this Monday June 21st , defeating the powerful Australia squad by the score of 3-2, scoring two quick goals within the first 10 minutes of the match, including a beautiful one by number 9 Sthembile Mangumt, a very skilled player! With this win, Serbia remains undefeated and gains its pass to the next round. As for Australia, they will need to wait for the result of the Germany and Ghana match to see what their future holds. Will Ghana play the trouble maker for Germany?

2 matches tomorrow at the MICC staring at 10am with England Vs. Slovenia

A productive second half for Australia against Ghana

2010-06-22T12:06:00.005+01:00

What looked like an easy win for the Ghana Team turned out into a nightmare, yesterday, in an afternoon match at the MICC. Leading by 2-0 in the second half, the Ghana Team saw Team Australia hitting them like a tornado, scoring 5 consecutive goals to win the match by the score of 5-2! The first goal of Team Australia, the first of two by striker Sabata Mojomotse and the first goal of the tournament for Team Australia had a huge effect on the rest of the team, who after that, were unstoppable! The crowd enjoyed every moment of this game, and the hype was at its maximum at the Mayibouye Pitch, the crowd present even doing a ‘pitch invasion’ after Australia's third goal, scored by Thabise Dlomini.

“The football fever is clearly hitting Munsieville, and the kids of the community are the main actors of this. This is so great to see and to live through” commented one of the spectators at the match. Australia is now first in its pool, tied with Germany and one point ahead of Serbia. The race for the 2 spots available for the knock-out stage looks promising in group D.

To also note in day 7 at the MICC, a 2-0 victory of Cameroon against Denmark as well as a 0-0 score between the Netherlands and Team Japan. More action today in the MICC starting at 11.30 with 4 matches opposing Slovakia and Paraguay, New Zealand vs the defending FIFA Champion Italy, as well as Brazil vs Ivory Coast and Team South Africa's 3rd match against the impressive France squad, a must win for the Host Team to keep hope in being part of the second round. To support your favorite Team through a small donation, log on to http://www.hopeactive.org/

A flurry of goals on the 4th day of the Munsieville Children’s Cup

2010-06-22T11:26:00.005+01:00

Offence was the word at the 4th day of activity in Munsieville. More than 13 goals were scored in the 3 games played at the sand pitch of Mayibouye – seeing les Bleus, Team Greece and South Korea adding... 3 points to their record.
A deceiving loss for Team Nigeria
Team Nigeria came in the Munsieville Children’s Cup with a lot of hope to make it to the second round, but yesterday’s results vanished their dream to make it happen, getting their second loss in 2 games. “ We have played a superb game, but we have been unable to take benefit of our chances. I am really proud of my team. Of course the result is deceiving but the children have so much fun. We will make sure to win the next game” said coach Abe. Next Team Nigeria game is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Surprise loss for Argentina!
Established as one of the top ranked teams, Argentina crashed in their second match opposing South Korea, by the score of 6-1. “Very hard to understand our performance after such a great opener. We will regroup this week and make sure that we are ready for game 3, which will be crucial for us to make it to the second round” said Manager Doctor Batsi after this disappointing game.
Team France on their way to the second round!
Finally, Team France still impress with a convincing 6-0 win over team Mexico, winner of their opener against Bafafa Bafafa. A well oiled football machine spectators at the Mayibouye ground were saying. France has now a 2-0 record and have not conceded a goal yet. This result does open a door for Team South Africa to make it to the second round. The challenge is big though, as their next opponent will be Team France. More action today at the Munsieville Stadium as 3 games will be played, Germany v Serbia, the USA against Slovenia as well as Team England's second match against the Algerians. To support your Team in the chhildren's Cup, log on to http://www.hopeactive.org/

Catching the 'World Cup Fever'!

2010-05-02T21:23:00.005+01:00

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing fantastically well!

I know, I know, I have been pretty silent on the blog in the last 2 weeks – and I do apologise for it! And thanks for the many reminders people!

But believe me, it's not because things have not moved on here! So for today’s article – I have decided to talk to you about the current work being done for the launch of the Munsieville Model of Excellence, which is at the core of my mandate here in South Africa.

Anyone who has been in South Africa for a day or two these last 3 months, or even in transit for an hour or two at one of the country's airports, will have been in a vulnerable position to be hit by a very dangerous and contagious bug which is currently contaminating the whole country. Many severe symptoms have been identified, including huge episodes of fever, that the authorities have named ‘The World Cup of Football fever’! And it just gets worse... There are no available vaccines and no drugs have shown any type of efficacy either. As you can see, very dangerous this ‘World Cup Bug’! And it is expected to spread all across the world this upcoming June, reaching millions and millions of people across the globe, with some severe alerts for something like 32 countries! Watch out!!!!

Before coming to South Africa in February, I had been warned by my GSK Canada Vaccines team about this bug, and they even tried to protect me against it by giving me a farewell ‘South Africa Bafana Bafana 2010 World Cup’ jersey.

Despite the ineffectiveness at protecting me from getting the ‘World Cup fever’, I have to once again, say a big 'Thank You' to my team back in Canada: Julie, Isabelle, Alex, Cara, Mary-Sue, Angelo and Carole. This farewell gift has been a real inspiration and source of reflection since my departure – in helping me to gather insights for the second phase of my PULSE ‘Be the Change’ assignment delivery, the development of a powerful awareness launch platform within the UK and South Africa, for the Munsieville OVC Model of Excellence and its associated Partnership Investment Programme, which is also creating a lot of excitement within the Munsieville Community.

One of the big differences I have noticed in my new work environment is the very limited level of resources the non-profit sector has to develop and implement plans, as compared to the private sector. Not a huge surprise you will say! So, how will we be able to create rapid awareness around the launch of the Munsieville Model, both in the UK and South Africa, with the limited resources available to us?

After spending long nights thinking about this, discussing with my colleagues, observing and listening to what the locals had to say about this 'bad bug' which is hitting the country… I came to the conclusion that these few words, if all grouped all together in one sentence, might potentially guide us to our solution: Superior Engagement, Creativity, and …external forces! What are those external forces that are present in the environment, which by adding a massive source of creativity to them, can create a product that will reach out to people to favour mass engagement and therefore, help us to create the energy necessary to reach out our “Tipping Point’?

OK, so enough talking- let's go straight to the point! It is with a great pleasure that I formally invite all of you to the upcoming launch of the Munsieville Model, from June 10th to July 10th 2010, where you will have the opportunity to learn more about the Munsieville Model and its associated Partnership Investment Programme - by following the action of the Munsieville International Children’s Cup of Football, where 32 teams of orphans and vulnerable children from Munsieville, aged between 13-17, representing and wearing the colours of the 32 FIFA World Cup Countries, will compete for 31 days, over 64 games, replicating the schedule of the FIFA World Cup of Football. For a full month, the children of Munsieville will be the kings and queens, the STARS of the community – which is at the core of the Munsieville Model. All the community rallied behind its future: the children’s.

More to come on the Munsieville Children’s Cup very soon. And, before I leave you, a quick word of caution. Watch out for this bug...it is coming....fast! Don't say that I didn't warn you...

Talk soon

Martin

Martin Lafontaine

GSK PULSE 'Be the Change' Volunteer

A very special chat...

2010-03-27T15:11:00.008Z

Hi everyone!

If the last week has been an amazing one, I don’t know what to say about this one - probably 'likkar' (the Afrikaans way to say amazing). Just learnt that this past week!

More progress has been made towards the roll-out of the Munsieville Model of Excellence, through several meetings aimed at gathering the insights and support at various levels: from the community leaders, to the district and provincial levels, to ensure the support and belief is being driven at all levels: 'Everyone Committed, Everyone Contributing.' The momentum is clearly out there!

The highlight of the week... Paul, Betty and I had the chance earlier this week to meet up with a fantastic lady, member of a very famous and influential family, in the name of Sister Mathabo Tutu, the sister of the famous Archbishop and Peace Nobel prize winner, Desmond Tutu.
We went to visit her at her house, in Munsieville – as she is still living in the family house. What an amazing woman, full of energy and so welcoming!!! We stayed there, chatted in her living room for almost an hour – time passed so quickly!

We had a great discussion around the work that we at Project HOPE UK will initiate in her community, which she was really interested in. We also discussed her brother, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and his attachment to the Munsieville community, where he once lived, taught at the local school and also, where he got married. She recommended that we reach out to him regarding the work that we will be doing in the community as he would be very interested to hear about it. So, more to come…

The 'hype' regarding the Munsieville Model is rapidly gaining more and more members of the community, and potential partners - let's keep moving forward!

Have an 'Ayoba' week everyone. Speak soon.

Martin Lafontaine
GSK PULSE Volunteer

Project HOPE UK

Give a man a fish and they will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime...

2010-03-16T12:16:00.006Z

Hi everyone, what an amazing week the last one has been in the progress towards the launch of the Project HOPE UK Munsieville Orphans and other Vulnerable Children's Model of Excellence.
Several key stakeholders meetings were held during the week, where Paul (Project HOPE UK Director) and I gathered great feedback and a huge amount of buy-in to make things move forward.

We had the chance to meet with numerous people within the healthcare and political systems over the last week, from the provincial to the district level, municipality, passing by the ward councillors of the various areas of the Munsieville township, the local community based organisations association representative, the government social services dept…

Throughout these meetings, we have been able to observe what we have defined as the 'Munsieville Model Stakeholder Gene', i.e. a series of values and attitudes sought in people involved which will 'make it happen', in alignment with the Model objective, vision and... 'DNA': commitment, engaged, focused on results, agent of change, visionary, believer, accountable, team player...

The response to the Model has been amazing at every level, with the various key stakeholders all taking actions towards immediate next steps: engagement and early momentum has been created!

Paul and I also had the opportunity to meet who might become the Munsieville Model of Excellence first NGO Partner, in the name of Ms. Coleen Walter, from the Safe and Sound Organisation, an organisation focusing on early childhood development, which has recently played a major role in influencing South African national policies in this regard! Clearly Coleen and her team have the 'right gene'!

The last week has also allowed me personally to further integrate the whole essence of the Munsieville Model and its aim. I am sure that you all know the famous Chinese proverb: 'give a man a fish and they will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime!' In summary, what the Munsieville Model aims to do is to push further the boundaries of this old proverb… by re-shaping the whole fishing industry through a community movement/local empowerment to make things happen, within the resources of this community to create sustainable change. The main actors being the children and the community members so that the momentum for change comes from within: Project HOPE UK being a catalyst for change. And from what we have heard and seen this week…the Munsieville community and its leaders are ready for this! They have the 'gene'!

Talk to you soon!

Martin

Martin Lafontaine

GSK Pulse Volunteer

Project HOPE UK

Departure for South Africa...

2010-02-26T11:09:00.009Z

Hi everyone.

Hope you are all doing fantastically well. So here we go... Friday February 26th, currently trying to finalise last minute things and pack my stuff to catch my night flight for South Africa, the start of a fantastic adventure. A long 11 hours flight, in which I hope to get a few hours sleep… Probably not. First because I am a very bad sleeper in planes and two, the excitement to get my two feet on African soil and start the field work with PROJECT HOPE UK team members around the Munsieville Model will most likely keep me up all night.

The last 3 weeks spent at PROJECT HOPE UK offices in London have been fantastic, providing me knowledge and background to help define how I can maximise my contribution. Three weeks of listening, reading, questioning, searching… to help forge my ideas around the tangible contribution I can bring to the development and launch of the innovative Munsieville Model of Excellence.

Three weeks where I was also able to be infected with PROJECT HOPE leaders Paul Brooks and Ellie Higgins passion, conviction and belief towards the development and successful implementation of a ‘global footprint potential’ Munsieville Model of Excellence for the care of orphans and Other Vulnerable Children. And believe me…this passion and belief is dangerously contagious!

I invite all of you to follow my journey over the next few months on this page, where I will be posting regular updates, stories, photos, videos and progress towards the building and launch of the Munsieville Model.

GSK PULSE ‘Be the Change’. Count on us to ‘Be it’! Talk to you soon

Martin

Martin Lafontaine
GSK Pulse Volunteer
Project HOPE UK

Martin Lafontaine joins Project HOPE UK to work on our South Africa programme

2010-02-16T09:45:00.002Z

Martin Lafontaine, currently National Vaccines Sales Manager for GlaxoSmithKline in Canada, has joined Project HOPE UK for a six month PULSE assignment. Project HOPE is in the early stages of establishing a “model of excellence” programme seeking to push the existing boundaries of care of AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children, located in and around Munsieville in West Rand, South Africa.
After spending a few weeks in London preparing the programme Martin will be located in Johannesburg, South Africa, for three months starting early March 2010. He will be contributing his project management, strategic and communication skills, in order to help create and implement the marketing and communications plan and play a leading role on setting up the first field-based beneficiary programme under the scheme.
PULSE volunteers serve global non-profit organisations locally or abroad on a full-time basis for three to six months. The programme is a win-win for both non-profits and GSK because it helps make a sustainable difference in each community served while supporting leadership development of GSK associates.
Check back next month for news from Martin in South Africa as the project gets underway.

Successful 2009 in South Africa

2010-01-12T09:32:00.010Z

2009 has been a successful year for Project HOPE in South Africa. Our Village Savings Fund (VSF) programme closed after helping almost 300 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and supporting many caregivers in their struggle to overcome some of the problems that they were facing.

This extract from a thank you letter that Project HOPE received from one of the participants shows how the VSF works:

My name is Dipuo Schalkwyk. I am 50 years old. I stay with my two daughters and 2 grandchildren. I joined the VSF group in May 2009. When I joined, life was very tough because there was no one working at home. I used to go to the Catholic Church every morning to get some food. Some of the days I used to come back home empty handed because there was no food. I tried to apply for the government grant and they told me to wait until I’m 60 years. My daughters have been trying to look for jobs for many years and till today they are still at home.
I was hesitating to join the VSF because I didn’t know what it was and how it could help me. Project HOPE staff asked me to give it a try and see the result after six months. Two months after I joined, I borrowed R200.00 and we bought twenty litres of paraffin. My daughters sold that paraffin in a week and so we bought a further 20 litres for four weeks. As the response was positive, we decided to borrow R600.00 to add to what we had and we bought 100 litres of paraffin. Today I am not depending on someone to give me handouts.
Since joining the VSF a number of positive changes have occurred: 1) My health has improved and my BP is down to normal again - my secret is eating healthy and not stressing anymore. 2) We eat vegetables every day and meat at least twice a week. 3) For the first time I have a savings account. 4) I am part of the Project HOPE food gardening program where I have been given land and seeds and am growing a variety of fruits and vegetables.”

The Social Fund, a form of group insurance used by members of the group in times of emergencies was recently used to allow a participant to travel back home to attend the funeral of his father and see his family for the first time in 18 years! Here is an extract of his account of the visit:

“I was born in North West Province. When I came here (West Rand), I worked for the mines. When the mines retrenched us, I did not go back home because I was hoping to find another job. Unfortunately it did not happen like that. I am staying alone in a one room shack. The last time I saw my family it was 18 years ago. I did not have money to go there. I joined this Village Savings Fund in May. I did not know what it was. At first I thought it was a woman thing. After I attended a few meetings and got some training, I began to understand it. I started to save a little money every week. In September this year, somebody told me that my dad had passed away; I did not know how I was going to bury my dad. I told some of the men in my group about my problem, they told me that I qualified to be given money for the transport to go and bury my dad. I was so excited when I received this R200.00 to go home. Everybody was excited to see me after so many years. Thank you Project HOPE for making this possible.”

As you can see from these testimonies, it doesn’t take much to make a huge difference to people’s lives in South Africa. The achievements of the VSF will be continued in future through local organisations.

The team at Project HOPE UK thank you for your generous support of our programme in South Africa, and wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Seasons greetings from Project HOPE

2009-12-15T12:07:00.007Z

Seasons Greetings from Project HOPE UK and thank you for your continuing support in these difficult economic times.

Why not spread some seasonal cheer to all the orphans and other vulnerable children in need of our help by making a donation online here.

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,

Paul H Brooks
Executive Director, Project HOPE UK
B9, 1-3 Iron Bridge Road, Stockley Park West
Uxbridge UB11 1BT, United Kingdom
Website: http://www.projecthopeuk.org

Nearly £9000 raised so far in our Virtual Ball - help us make it more!

2009-11-26T12:41:00.005Z

Dear Project HOPE supporter

So far we have raised nearly £9000 in our 'Virtual Ball', but you can help us take this total over £10,000 by taking part in our e-Bay auction which is still running, or simply make a donation by clicking here

Why not sell some of your own items on e-Bay and donate some or all of the proceeds to Project Hope - just click on the 'Sell' tab here, list your items and choose how much of the sale price you want to go to Project HOPE.

And don't forget to reserve the date for next year's real-life ball at the Savoy in the Strand on Thursday 18th November!

Thank you for your support.

The Project HOPE Virtual Ball is today!

2009-11-19T11:34:00.000Z

Is your virtual party attire at the ready? Today is the day of the Project HOPE UK VIRTUAL BALL (www.virtualball.org) and the site is up and dancing, ready for you to visit and pass on to all your contacts!

The UK may be passing through difficult economic times, but not to be compared to the challenges faced by millions of orphans and other vulnerable children across Africa and Asia - the children Project HOPE UK is totally committed to support. Together with our supporters, we made the decision not to have our glittering fundraising ball in London this year (originally scheduled for today), but to ask you to be generous in supporting the Virtual Ball, so we can still serve the children.

Please, please ...... visit www.virtualball.org right now and send the link to all your colleagues and friends. You can bid in our online auctions for exciting lots from as little as £1.95 up to a £000s. And you can make on online donation through the site, or https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/projecthopeukvirtualball# - every penny raised will be used to change the lives of children forever!

Thank you for your generous support. By visiting www.virtualball.org, you will be part of a world first; the first-ever fundraising event of its type!

Just 3 days left to bid in the e-Bay auction for this year's Virtual Ball

2009-11-17T10:21:00.002Z

There are just 3 days left to bid for the exciting items in our e-Bay auction which is part of this year's Virtual Ball - take a look at what's on offer now, ranging from fine art to vintage jewellery or a fantastic night out for four.

If you're not an e-Bay member, why not take part in our Silent Auction where we have a wonderful selection of lots to choose from, including a case of champagne or a Fortnum and Mason hamper, ideal for Christmas.

It's not too late to sponsor a page on the site or book a table, so send us your reservations now and check back on Nov 19th to see your own or your company's name on display.

Don't forget that you can also support this innnovative online event by making a donation - all funds raised will be used for our work helping to improve the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in South Africa.

Thank you for your support

Virtual Ball e-Bay auction now live

2009-11-12T09:59:00.002Z

As part of the exciting and innovative Project Hope Virtual Ball, we have an auction running on e-Bay until Nov 19th.

Take a look at the limited edition prints and lithographs by artists such as Renoir and Dali, or bid for some vintage jewellery or a fabulous night out for four people at the exclusive Mahiki night club in London's Mayfair.

If these items aren't quite your thing, then how about bidding for a luxury Fortnum and Mason hamper, six bottles of champagne or some beautiful jewellery in our silent auction. With Christmas not far away, this is an ideal way to do your shopping.

Don't delay - there's only just over a week to go before the auctions close, so get your bids in now!

All proceeds from this online event will go to support Project Hope's work helping to improve the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in South Africa.

Thank you for your support.

Project HOPE's 2009 Virtual Ball - we need your help!

2009-10-29T13:15:00.004Z

Dear Friend of Project HOPE UK,

We know you share our passion for improving the health of disadvantaged communities around the world - something that has become increasingly difficult in these recessionary times when everyone is feeling the pinch!

That's why we created our unique and brand new website - www.virtualball.org, a fun and innovative way to raise vitally needed funds for our work in support of orphans and other vulnerable children in the developing world.

WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS A SUCCESS. Would you please do one or all of the four things below - you really can change a live in Africa forever!

1) Visit www.virtualball.org right now. We don't pretend that it is the flashiest site in the world, but it was created on a shoe string and yet captures the flavour of one of our real-life Fundraising Balls, but at a tiny fraction of the cost.

2) Consider one of the many sponsorship packages for your company - they represent excellent value because your logo and URL will be seen by thousands more visitors than we would ever get at an actual Fundraising Ball - www.virtualball.org is getting thousands of hits every day!

3) Make a personal donation online through the site - even a small amount will be gratefully received and put to use immediately in our child-centred projects in Africa.

4) PLEASE, PLEASE ... send the link to www.virtualball.org as far and wide as you can. Tell your friends and colleagues and send it out through Facebook and Twitter.

The Virtual Ball is just that - a virtual event. But the potential impact in the lives of children is massive, so thank you in advance for anything you can do to spread the word and increase the impact.

With very best wishes.

Paul H Brooks
Executive Director

Virtual Ball site now live

2009-10-20T10:40:00.004+01:00

The Project HOPE UK Virtual Ball site is now live, but you don't need to wait until the 19th of November to join in the fun!
Take a look now at what's in store and sponsor a page, bid for some of the wonderful auction items or make a donation.
As this is an online event, all proceeds will go directly to our work helping to improve the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in South Africa.
And help us spread the word about this innovative virtual event via your own blogs, Twitter sites, Facebook or Myspace pages and other social networking tools.
You can also get an exclusive preview of next year's real-life ball to be held at the refurbished Savoy in The Strand, London on Thursday 18 November 2010.

Latest Project HOPE UK newsletter now online

2009-09-24T10:17:00.004+01:00

Project HOPE UK's latest newsletter is now online on our Web site - check out the updates on all our activities, including our signature programme helping to improve the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children in Munsieville, South Africa.

There's also more information about our upcoming 'Virtual Ball' on 19 November, where 100% of the funds raised will be used in support of this flagship programme.

http://www.projecthopeuk.org/newsreleasedetails.asp?ReleaseID=5E338165-1E39-4E8A-B372-449B9323DF54

Village Saving Fund Mentoring Day

2009-09-17T10:45:00.013+01:00

In early 2008, Project HOPE used the successful experiences of its Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) project in Mozambique to launch a pilot Village Savings Fund (VSF) project in Munsieville, in partnership with The Haven (a local NGO).

VSFs involve small groups of 10-25 OVC caregivers who pool small amounts of savings, and then use those savings to provide interest-bearing loans to each other for their short-term credit needs (such as buying seeds for the planting season, paying school fees so children can attend school, paying for medical assistance, and to take advantage of business opportunities). The interest on the loans is essentially interest on the pooled savings, and goes back to the group members thus providing an increased revenue source whether they are borrowers or not. Local capacities are built because self-governing groups mobilise their own funds, manage them, decide on their loan terms, and receive interest return on their savings through investing in loans.

Because of the way the community is structured in Munsieville, Village Saving Fund (VSF) groups are based on the different nationalities in the settlement – i.e. there are groups from Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe etc. The groups generally tend not to interact with each other, and therefore lose out on benefiting from learning from one another. Over the past few months some of them have done extremely well by starting small businesses selling chickens and baking cakes, while others have struggled to get off the ground.

So that all the groups could learn from their counterparts in the community, a mentoring day was held recently, where they all came together to share their successes and the problems that they have faced. To add to the excitement, there was a prize for the most successful group (based on weekly meeting attendance, savings & loans portfolio, initiatives taken to start up a business etc).

The day was a great success. The groups shared information about what they have been doing – one group started by purchasing 10 chickens a week to sell, and now they are up to 25 a week. Other groups shared frustrations about the lack of unity between group members which makes it more difficult for them to work together. The highlight of the event was the announcement of the winners – a Mozambican group called “Sizanani” which means “helping each other.” They received certificates and a prize of food and clothing and the video below shows you how excited the room became when the winners were announced!

The day provided the motivation needed for the groups who have been struggling to get on the right track, and a Project Hope team will be following up with house visits over the next few months to encourage them further as they discover the important difference that VSFs can make to the health and lives of people living in informal settlements here in South Africa.

A Project Hope intern's work for children in South Africa

2009-08-18T12:04:00.002+01:00

Cristian Greenwood, a recent graduate from Southampton University, talks about his background and how he came to be working with Project HOPE UK on a 6 month internship:

“Although I studied Applied Social Sciences at university, specialising in Anthropology, and want to pursue a career in International Development, my interest in the inequalities among different communities of the globe goes back to my childhood. I’m half Colombian, and it was on a family holiday to Colombia when I was eleven years old, that I became fully aware of the differences between the lives of people in developed countries and those in other parts of the world. On a visit to a prehistoric site in a remote mountain area, a group of young native children tried to sell us fossils, for which they spent all day digging on the mountainside in dangerous conditions. The contrast between their lives and mine was so great that the incident has stuck in my memory ever since, and from it came my inspiration to try and make a difference to the lives of people less fortunate than me.”

“After I left university in summer 2008, I applied to a number of UK-based charities for placements to get some experience in the sector. I joined Project HOPE in March 2009, and am working on a proposal to submit to various charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who would be interested in funding field research in to violence and sexual crimes committed against orphans and other vulnerable children (OOVCs) in Gauteng Province, South Africa. As well as gathering evidence on the extent of the problem, the research project will also define ways to try and mitigate the impact of these crimes on the children, working with organisations already established in the region.”

“I’m spending two days a week at Project HOPE, and the rest of my time is divided between working for a charity fundraiser and in a designer clothes shop, as well as learning to drive! After this placement, I would like to work for a charity to get some further work experience in the sector, whilst saving to go to South America. My next step will be to go and work there with disadvantaged indigenous communities who lack access to opportunities for education, housing and employment, as well as travelling the sub-continent and becoming fluent in Spanish.”

“After 3-4 years of work and travel, I plan to return to the UK to study for a Masters in International Development or Demographic Statistics, which I will then use in my career helping to improve the lives of people less fortunate than me, while at the same time maintaining my interest in human nature, people and cultures of the world.”

For more details of internships with Project HOPE UK, click here.

Project HOPE assessing needs in South African settlements

2009-08-13T08:28:00.009+01:00

From Stefan Lawson, Project Hope South Africa Country Director:
Over the past few weeks, with the help of two interns from East Tennessee State University, Project HOPE has been very busy conducting rapid needs assessments in a number of slums in and around the West Rand area.
We put together a survey to ask some specific questions about access to health facilities, water, sanitation, food, education and economic status and then went with someone from the local government into the slum area to begin conducting the survey. The first thing we did was to count the number of shacks – as these slums are “informal” there are no statistics on them, no one even knows exactly how many people live in them! So we walked up and down the rows of shacks counting them, which gave us an estimate of how many people are living there. With that number we worked out how many people we needed to survey to get an accurate sample of the population. After that, we went through the slum interviewing people at random to gather the information that we need. It has been very interesting because it provides the opportunity not only to collect data, but also to strike up conversations with people and let them tell you what the problems are and what they feel the solutions are.
There have been municipal strikes recently which has meant that a couple of these slums have not received any water. The government uses a tractor to pull a tank of water a couple of times a week into these areas. No water means limited cooking, washing and having to walk a distance to buy water from a shop when desperate. In all of these slums that I have visited, little food is grown, which means that people have to buy everything that they eat. With soaring food prices the amount and quality of food that people can buy is reduced. I like to dig a bit deeper with questions about food, asking where they get their food from and what they eat each day. A few people I interviewed were very honest. Their response was, “We don’t have money to buy food, so we steal it from the local farmer.” Walking around these areas you can see the intergenerational transmission of poverty very clearly. The mother who had a child at a young age is illiterate. Her child went to primary school but had to stop because she was “naughty”, which means she got pregnant. Her child faces so many barriers to overcome and break free from this cycle of disadvantage.
Project HOPE is currently designing a specific programme to address the needs of children under the age of 5 years, to enable them to break free from this cycle of poverty and help give them a brighter future where access to quality health care, education, basic services, employment opportunities and food will not be a dream, but a reality.

Project HOPE bids for funds for West Rand orphans

2009-08-04T10:10:00.003+01:00

Project HOPE UK has submitted a proposal to the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to support important advances in the care of orphans and other vulnerable children in four informal settlements in West Rand, South Africa, as part of its “Munsieville Model” initiative.

The DFID bid, for funding under its Civil Society Challenge Fund, requests a grant of £495,000 to create satellite projects in the slum settlements, each of which aims to get the communities and the providers of essential services working together to benefit vulnerable children and their caregivers initially, and through them, the whole community.

Executive Director, Paul Brooks, described the core problem. “The four informal settlements are typical of many around the major cities of southern Africa; they house growing populations in extreme poverty, often outside the reach of government services and the activities of voluntary organisations. The problems of Africa are magnified in these slums and the thousands of children who have lost parents to AIDS face a massive struggle simply to survive.

“The residents of these settlements are reluctant to claim services from their government for fear that they could provoke action to clear their illegal sites, and government and charity workers are equally reluctant to provide services, fearing the high crime rates and massive demand for services in these communities. It is essential”, says Paul, “that we build a bridge so that these wonderfully resourceful communities can come into mainstream society, from the shadows of their squatter camps”.

Orphans and other vulnerable children are at the heart of the Project HOPE strategy for the West Rand settlements. Of all residents, they are the most needy, but also, the growing challenge they pose is perhaps the one major point of common interest between the residents, whose resources are being overwhelmed by them, and the government, which is under scrutiny from the international community to comply with the child rights treaties it has endorsed. Project HOPE UK believes that as the communities come together to improve the prospects of their children, it will have a dramatic impact on the way the entire population engages with government and civil society.

The focal point of the new project will be the establishment of five, fully sustainable early childhood development centres – pre-school facilities where caregivers can leave their children for five days each week, freeing them to participate in a wide-ranging training programme to equip them to give excellent care, and also gain employment, start small-scale businesses or tend high-yield vegetable gardens. Whilst at the pre-school centres, which will be operated by Project HOPE UK partners, Safe and Sound, the children will receive health screening and immunisation, development checks, nutritious meals and early childhood education.

Other services will cascade out to the wider community, including numerous Village Savings and Loans groups and regular awareness events, run jointly in the settlements, by Project HOPE South Africa, local authority service providers, charities and other agencies, to help residents benefit from full access to their rights, including healthcare, education, social services, legal registration and participation in democratic processes.

Along with the proposal submitted to DFID, Project HOPE UK is also applying for funds from a variety of other sources for similar projects in the West Rand area of South Africa, as part of its long term vision of establishing The Munsieville Model as one of Africa’s leading, fully-integrated and locally sustainable models of excellence in the care of orphans and other vulnerable children, focused on their health and total well-being, and through it, to influence and enhance work with such children everywhere.

Paul Brooks’ African-style vegetable garden produces a bumper harvest

2009-07-23T10:59:00.014+01:00

Project Hope UK’s Executive Director Paul Brooks has turned an unused corner of his garden in Buckinghamshire into a productive vegetable plot based on the keyhole design used in Africa.

Keyhole gardens act like an organic ‘recycling unit’, using kitchen and garden waste and rainwater or grey water from the house to grow vegetables.

The original garden design is named after the keyhole shape seen when it is viewed from above. Compostable waste is placed in a central basket and the soil banked up around it, sloping down towards the retaining wall of the garden. Rainwater or waste water from the kitchen or bathroom is poured over the compost bin so that it seeps through to water the vegetables and feed them with nutrients from the compost at the same time.

The design of the garden allows easy access to top up the compost bin, and also to plant, weed and pick the vegetables. As an added bonus, two or three times as many vegetables can be produced than from a traditional plot.

In Africa, keyhole gardens are transforming lives by allowing the smallest plots of land to be used for food production. The stone wall surrounding the garden prevents soil erosion, protects the crops from livestock and helps retain moisture. In addition, the raised soil level of the garden makes it easy for the sick and elderly and even children to work. In many areas, keyhole gardens have been so successful that families are able to feed themselves and have surplus produce to sell, providing additional income for the household.

Athough his garden did not conform to the authentic keyhole shape, Paul’s aim was to prove that this system of vegetable growing could dramatically increase yields (as you can see from the photos), and to demonstrate how such gardens can be used to improve the diets of orphaned and vulnerable children in places like Munsieville, South Africa.

By producing large volumes of vitamin-rich vegetables and fruits all year round from limited resources, keyhole gardens can help provide some of the world’s poorest people with access to safe, healthy food. Click here to learn more about Project Hope’s work in Munsieville or make a donation.

10K London run a great success

2009-07-15T10:57:00.003+01:00

Despite the early morning rain, the 10km London run on Sunday 12th July was a great success, with over 50 people running for Project Hope.
The fastest runner was Jonathan Brooks, with an impressive time of 40 mins 35 secs, whilst his father, Paul Brooks, Project Hope UK's executive director, completed the course in just over 1 hour. The average time for runners in the fastest team was 60 mins 7 secs.
Everyone joined in the celebrations and award ceremony afterwards at the Blue Posts pub.
Project HOPE UK's "Running for HOPE" teams raised funds to support the charity's new signature programme, "The Munsieville Model", which aims to push forward the boundaries of care for thousands of AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children in South Africa.
Every step run, and every penny you donate, will take Project HOPE UK closer to the goal of creating genuinely sustainable, community-based initiatives that will ensure the health and total well-being of children in the urban slums around Johannesburg. It will also enhance and influence work with orphans and vulnerable children throughout the developing world.
I'ts not too late to sponsor Paul or any of the other Project Hope runners online at www.bmycharity.com/projecthopeuk
Next year's run will be on Sunday 11 July, so if you're inspired to join in, save the date now!

BBQ banquet raises nearly £3000 for Munsieville

2009-07-07T09:43:00.004+01:00

Theresa McCarthy, Project Hope UK board member, commented on the BBQ evening held at North Mymms Park, Herts on Saturday 20th June:

Congratulations to everyone involved in organising such a wonderful evening last night at the Project HOPE Summer Event.
The venue was delightful (including the tour which was arranged for us of the magnificent house) the atmosphere was really warm and positive and everyone seemed to be havinga great time.
It was also nice to have enough space to walk around, which meant you could chat to lots of people at the different 'happenings' (casino tables, Scalextrix, barbecue) and build a feeling of being one of a group of benefactors rather than just individuals.

A total of nearly £3000 was raised to help Project Hope's work supporting orphaned and vulnerable children in Munsieville.

Those of you who were away missed a great time!

Can you help Project HOPE today?

2009-06-25T08:27:00.003+01:00

Project HOPE is funded from the grassroots by caring people like you. Our financial year is ending on June 30th and we need your help to continue providing lifesaving health education and humanitarian assistance to those in need around the world, especially children.
You’ve been following our important work online and know about our lifesaving programmes around the globe as well as our inspiring new programme in South Africa.
You can help today by donating online - the fastest and most efficient way to help Project HOPE continue saving lives.

Donate now

Countering the “hand-out” mentality in Munsieville

2009-06-16T13:10:00.002+01:00

Both the formal and informal settlements of Munsieville have been around a long time. Over the years there have been numerous NGOs both small and large that have run programmes and then left – both in good and bad circumstances. Right now in our office here there is a small NGO handing out food packages to vulnerable women and children. Other NGOs give out clothes, food, soap sporadically depending on when they receive donations.

This is valuable and necessary, people need to eat and to have clothes to wear, yet this has created over the years a “Hand-Out” mentality or “dependency syndrome” in which people expect to get. So there is this difficult tension between trying to meet immediate needs, and looking longer-term at trying to address root causes of the problems. The government has acknowledged this problem, and it wants organisations to empower people to dig themselves out of poverty. We (NGOs and government) can give people the tools, but they must do it for themselves.

An example of this would be Project HOPE's Village Savings Fund. This is a programme in which groups of 20 are formed, and trained to collect savings on a weekly basis – even if it is only 10 cents - and put it into a pot. From this pot loans can be made out to the group to start a business or expand an existing venture. These loans are paid back with interest thus increasing the savings pot. They also supplement this with a Social Fund which acts as a form of insurance. Each member puts the same amount into the Social Fund each week until it has reached the designated pot size. From this fund emergencies can be met like paying to get to the hospital, funeral expenses etc. A key component of each meeting is health education – talking about relevant issues such as HIV, TB, legal access to government services. The concept of the Village Savings Fund is a great one, and it has worked well in many other places in Africa, and also here in South Africa. We are taking it to the people and hitting the dependency syndrome right on the head with it. We are sure that once the first group of Village Savings Fund participants have gone through the cycle and they can see the tangible benefits, then they will become advocates for it and recruit others.

Opening doors with donation of medical supplies

2009-06-15T13:19:00.001+01:00

Product Donation from Smith & Nephew and GlaxoSmithKline

Project Hope is known for its ability to effectively procure and distribute needed medicines and medical supply donations with high levels of accountability. We call this Gifts-In-Kind or GIK for short. It can act as a great introduction when one is beginning work in a new country.

In South Africa the Ministry of Health spends the largest portion of its budget on procuring drugs and medical equipment for the country’s patients. Therefore any donations are very welcome, and in fact are relied upon to make sure that the people living in South Africa have access to healthcare when they need it.

Project HOPE UK had been working for a number of months to get product valued at £200,000 (more than $293,000) from S&N and GSK to South Africa. After a few weeks on a ship and it passing through customs it arrived at our container warehouse from where it is being stored and distributed throughout West Rand to NGOs and clinics benefiting the community which we serve. Some of the items include peak flow meters, blood pressure monitors, scales, blankets, tissues, gloves, crutches, bandages and more.

To show our appreciation we had a ceremony inviting the South African representatives of GSK and S&N as well as the Executive Mayor of West Rand District, representatives from the West Rand Ministry of Health and other NGO beneficiaries including our partner The Haven.

Our programme site in South Africa

2009-06-09T10:41:00.006+01:00

As you can see from the picture we are based at the moment out of a container office in the middle of a township called Munsieville. Munsieville’s most famous resident was the Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize Winner) who went to school there. Munsieville is situated in the Mogale City Municipality and the West Rand District of Gauteng Province, South Africa. The whole area has been a target for African population movement over the last few decades drawing people from all over the continent to come work in the mining industry. At the peak of the “gold rush” many immigrants (predominantly males) found lucrative work, and over time brought their families from their home countries. However, with the downscaling of the mining industry, thousands of people have become unemployed. Formal rates of unemployment exceed 30%, with estimates up to 70% for the informal settlements. This is continuing with the shedding of jobs due to the current global financial crisis. With the rapid rise in food prices and tightening of credit availability, thousands of people are facing increased hardship. Even though many immigrants are now facing unemployment, the majority are not returning home, but staying in South Africa, as they have been in the country for many years.

Munsieville has two parts – a formal part and an informal part. In the formal part many South African residents live in low cost concrete houses to which services such as water and electricity are supplied. The informal part is made up of predominantly foreigners living in the country illegally – mainly Mozambicans and Zimbabweans. They live in shacks made from scraps of wood, plastic and metal. They have no electricity, water or sanitation services provided. Disease is prevalent in the area and unemployment is high. As they are in the country illegally many cannot access any form of healthcare, education or social service grants because they have no formal identification documents.If you want to read more on the history of Munsieville you can follow the link: http://www.mogalecity.gov.za/visitors/townships.stm

Keep on checking this blog to see how Project HOPE is meeting some of the many needs in this area!